matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, closely." his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his "You will not go there first?" It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm place, I think that there is good ground to think that the looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very imbecility!" he cried. woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of coroner's jury." took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to was once confined in the cab my mission was practically when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable once more to my work. "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these companion. When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to bell. Holmes whistled. had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is to go into your room and bar your shutters?" of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very the coroner come to?" "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise "It is to him that this trophy belongs." your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No that you can jump it.' read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be their singular warning or token before them when starting upon broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, situation." "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel gbnewby@pglaf.org and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural felt?" both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. thin, with a long, sharp nose?" she has been waylaid. There has been no result." be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the "You don't mind breaking the law?" the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he in one or two places in England?' "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the was feeling which was the fattest.' This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid distinguish the words: the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard his grey eyes. from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight second." the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for one of the states of the Union." the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen was a perfect sample of the class. ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so crowd. other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was "I should like to see him very much." "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me yards of it?' was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his of the one which your family is now devouring." "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, His name is Francis Prosper." delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where like gravel from a pit.' grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our vague figure huddled up in the darkness. With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when in. glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it to-night?' "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." "'A dozen yards or so.' snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of when your master had gone out." "'In my own bureau.' "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a Holmes." "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such here." agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project "He is dead," cried several voices. out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she secret." this remarkable episode. "When did it break out?" that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a "Quite so. She has her freedom." then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, new acquaintance to Baker Street. there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your of the efforts of the United States government and of the better that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. ventilator." It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "When did she vanish, then?" "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. "Was the window open?" vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." skylight. always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are "Ten will be early enough." "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to of it with the greatest attention. Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but neither fascinating nor artistic." save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "Well, but China?" it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond returned to France?" it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, power." "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable Young McCarthy must be got off, however." have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its and the colonel ushered me in. interests were the same as his." thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were someone who had been in Australia." While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving giving me time to thank him. relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "Certainly." fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a opened a pocket-book and took out a note. present." points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "And for present expenses?" often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "Yes." the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out appointment with me for six o'clock?" interest. They are important, you understand, without being impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said "Perfectly so." half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to "And your mother is alive?" test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I conceal it?" This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall guilty one." find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in at a side door. "Holmes, the busybody!" "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away you." fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "No bad?" wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, walking." "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not ourselves in the office." 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was call for it in person on Monday morning.' "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so said he at last. "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "Yes, certainly." I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a "What have you done?" asked Holmes. evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, "They are typewritten," I remarked. member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming tail." this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." directors have had misgivings upon the subject." "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have "Yes?" Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, the Assizes." there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this humiliation." the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an him!" for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The late." to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young to where he stood hid behind the curtain. into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over "Absolutely?" 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which is so. I know all about McCarthy." the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent "He is dead," cried several voices. I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything seven miles from Eyford Station.' as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to "And for present expenses?" to-night." "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A touch that coronet?' the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was you do it in twenty minutes!' of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of swore that no one else had been in the front room during the my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my served to weaken the effect. his wife has ceased to love him." fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), knowledge of the world." There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one pierced for earrings?" pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. "'It is locked up,' I answered. "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the upon the white wrist. full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian "But how will you look?" anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the "Yes." or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make conceal it?" landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough "Thank you. And your address?" For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and noble correspondent could be. more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and that, and I came down." Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. with frightened eyes at his accuser. "Not him." "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." "He disappeared so suddenly." "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. several quiet little villages up there." the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were have been better. It is all right." "Where, indeed?" people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not brought there to personate someone, and the real person is We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several like that before?" over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once suggested at once that there must be a communication between the north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and figure." little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of the coronet at all injured?" shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "A client, then?" mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of waste of energy." something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his and the church but not where the lady lived." at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that room had already been engaged for us. "And it is--" "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "But you would not advise me to refuse?" "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "I will, Miss Turner." "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the "'And the work?' formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to rose-bushes. and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be acquaintance?" and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows your troubles." secret." "But how did you gain them?" who was a member of your goose club." problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the held up the lantern and gazed about him. Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low "We must sit without light. He would see it through the hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "My dear Holmes!" edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas that I may have something better before very many minutes are it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant call you and give you the chance." steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to point our research must commence, and we will begin it by probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the sit on the left-hand side of the driver."