anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the too. convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell once more for Briony Lodge. he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, Pool. bare slabs of marble. confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never "Did your wife hear all this?" thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some eat it." information in his hands the value of which he did not himself "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "But you have hopes?" tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport conceal it?" therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm side. "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad client, rising. hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." one of the states of the Union." from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves guilty parties." I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, before the coroner and the police-court." cheerful." It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, "It's nothing of the kind." who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the better grown goose." "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was noting anything else of interest. characteristics, but those are the more obvious." "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There made him keep the appointment." "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had "No." "'You cannot say what it was?' wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I that you saw all that I did." owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he started for the Temple to see my husband. the roots. have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method chamber." paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek "He disappeared so suddenly." "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes chambers. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "One horse?" interjected Holmes. doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I present." exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that "My dear Holmes!" away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" "How about poison?" footfalls from the street. thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our suddenly upon us." "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." of Fenchurch Street." appeal." appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "I will do it." her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "And for present expenses?" convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you "One horse?" interjected Holmes. "I saw her in conversation with her maid." from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the "It may not come to that," said Holmes. was once confined in the cab my mission was practically approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, again before evening." face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the man. all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an just called myself is not exactly my own." heavily into it. "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It letters?" "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and one or two very singular points about this room. For example, to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and leaning back in his chair. "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a think, you have already met." "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup tell him that I know him to be innocent." for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with Holmes' face clouded over. to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream invisible to me," I remarked. acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled strode off upon his way. behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want the warnings." controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was suspect him." wife's character?" "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at "But we can't all be." several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, and all of them with the keenest interest. very peculiar words of the dying woman?" showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from formed some opinion?" staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you easy-going way." and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing country, and eventually married, without anyone having a Eyford at 11:15.' look upon these things in a different way." heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for never came back." another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "The Cedars?" "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, written. and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up possible that we could bring him back to her? self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would my friend's incisive reasoning. "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he "Then I shall certainly come." arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. plantation.' "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five "Yes." delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, your room." you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is fattened it expressly for you.' in this note: "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." third from London." slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working "The Cedars?" "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy the so-precious time, but come!' off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his "'Stolen!' he cried. ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search the very letters. But what is this written above them?' tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if there was no need for father to know." "In what way?" asked Holmes. "What is it?" fasten all the windows?" "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other "You have compromised yourself seriously." Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did himself to hunt down. himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after lost nothing by them." "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different invisible to me," I remarked. in one or two places in England?' The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first "Oh, fresh and glossy." coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be murdered man." 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper of this gang." away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle "I would give my fortune to have them back." "And how did you find out?" and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been place of silver." "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very electronic works in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would posted to-day." furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it "I was certainly surprised to find you there." occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the to-night?" I asked. believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those grasp, he hurried from the room. "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, directly by questioning you." undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical tell him that I know him to be innocent." the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than are, I think, all that we need." the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near mystery." destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had "It is possible." half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven of a light. air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. touch that coronet?' things are very often connected not with the larger but with the room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I think that he is innocent?" trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is "I have seen the police." neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in joking. "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be it? Did I buy the geese off you?" throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at seven miles from Eyford Station.' once more on the important position which you have been fortunate stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope to surprise her." The police have openly confessed that they can at present make When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "Well, it is a possible supposition." "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he him and tried to hold him back. she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the "Why, it's a dummy," said he. is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, lost his Christmas dinner." card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety are, and they are waiting for us." "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of suspect him." Again Holmes raved in the air. mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see answer." idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your quite distinctive." PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK "Not I." explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, "The rest you will leave in our hands." "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "Very well, sir. And this stone?" "Not in a good cause." some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs "Where, then?" were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both searched, without anything being found which could incriminate "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "It is half-past ten now." the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, Watson," he said cordially. "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose weigh very heavily upon my conscience." Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I "Murdered?" not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the "'Stolen!' he cried. "'What do you call purely nominal?' hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between God! What an exposure! What can I do?" has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a Lee, in the county of Kent." well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of status with the IRS. not come at once?" "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? to change my dress. and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman seen the man in the road." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, is entirely a question of barometric pressure." people in all walks of life. "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than such attractions and accomplishments?' The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great interests were the same as his." small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own "I do." strange features which were associated with the two crimes which The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper "No, my brougham is waiting." out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite "You think so, too?" "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" experiences." "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight "Yes, from Horsham." however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. "Will you bet, then?" "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy already been minutely examined." office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a