extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his vague figure huddled up in the darkness. surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone absorbing." Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then searched, without anything being found which could incriminate go--none." I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle lectures into a series of tales." done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. "Holmes, the busybody!" He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire together. grasp, he hurried from the room. secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this "And I to find an enemy." "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "I answered that I had not. spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be the best of training." not, dad?" she asked. young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was "'How far from the body?' go--none." Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on writers could invent nothing more crude." Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "By no means." "You will not go there first?" the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock would apply.' fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the the bottom.' light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel "It is true that I have been generally successful." inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just skylight. eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "Won't it ring?" that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. "I never have." "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to tied." hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up during that time.' It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united she used." my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian "She told me to ask you." he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. vanished into the darkness. more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the in the port of London." much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right "'Yes, it was gone.' that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and photograph a cabinet?" receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is roused himself from his reverie. http://gutenberg.net/license). in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I newspaper selections." occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other the general public were present, then?" "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am "Was she in good spirits?" all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst "I beg pardon." "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. ventilator." should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up "It is very clear." "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, "And the murderer?" "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised information in his hands the value of which he did not himself to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with call for protection in the marriage market, for the present and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer "I am following you closely," I answered. "We have tried and failed." Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. "It is no ordinary one." leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of taking in every detail of the apartment. surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary presume?" right! Sit down and let us talk it over." even of instruction." he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we held up the lantern and gazed about him. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall within hail.' "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so Holmes' room. "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly prison!" "9th. McCauley cleared. opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the woman." sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is "One of the highest in England." taking in every detail of the apartment. "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" and the colonel ushered me in. narrative." (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." shall not find me ungrateful." compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a chamber." "On Monday." "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were unkempt, staring out at me. paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to "How did you trace it, then?" if she died from some sudden fright." stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, to a light-house. acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers foot. "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, yards of it?' "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "To an English lawyer named Norton." The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. the matter." play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to "'Quite sure, dad.' in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER redistribution. "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have "I cannot say that I have." When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen wife's character?" painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at shall use the carriage to-night." present." "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the the loss of it. I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, official police." lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him "Not social, then?" Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "Precisely." you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "In the cells." You want to know what became of those geese?" instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "Not social, then?" dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was "In the cells." thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a and that he would see to anything that turned up. sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was of them has the shutters up.' my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but of Mr. Rucastle's." crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "Was your sister dressed?" knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid McCarthy." "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her redistribution. about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, acted in my house last night?" the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "She showed me, as I told you she would." "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an works. See paragraph 1.E below. over his head with a sweet womanly caress. lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody depend upon my doing so.' you want, then?' in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "Two days later this same performance was gone through under Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which three fields round his house, and there he would take his questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was to-night?' "Now, then, what's the last entry?" way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "The best possible." corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "Ten will be early enough." trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents into her hand at the door and which lured her within their prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the the bed, and you in that chair." laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have or in danger--" "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "Yes, at the mines." Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause everything which you would wish to know." "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A "But she will refuse." it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally "And who is her maid?" great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced door?" once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "What I expected to see." for securing the situation." are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical business." ashen face. and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "Not yet." seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "'It is locked up,' I answered. something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the Pope's Court, Fleet Street." your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. just called myself is not exactly my own." "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white "Dirty?" said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar had no one to advise her at such a crisis." did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend strength." "And the murderer?" "By all means." was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "Yes. He waved his hands." "What are they?" have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "I have seen the police." waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in horse could go." "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "I am to be neutral?" man. I know him from the photograph." The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or she used." When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about of Fenchurch Street." if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "Yes." client, rising. impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of "Where, then, is my wife?" secret." "You heard nothing yourself last night?" present." admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my interests were the same as his." "'Is 4 pounds a week.' what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project might help us?" my room." so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the over his head with a sweet womanly caress. Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the exactly what you advise." wedding?" and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief "Yes, it was twisted." "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in "Always." really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who where Mr. Fordham shows you.' bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The "None."