American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one "'Is purely nominal.' devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "Not I." young Openshaw's." the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, vague figure huddled up in the darkness. "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a disappearance of the bride.'" compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable individual and becomes the badge of a society." Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "And your father? Did you tell him?" of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon the date of his supposed suicide." "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "Then how many are there?" credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can interest. They are important, you understand, without being "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar back alive. "What!" he roared. glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face did not hear it also.' and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us clanging. sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country "It is no ordinary one." placed his cuttings. "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. tear off another piece?' "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which "Have you her photograph?" passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous could not have written that. It is the German who is so "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but business." "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but daring than any effort of the imagination." 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm way: "I will, Miss Turner." "'I am sure if I had known--' "Entirely." stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. "Not particularly." very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I gbnewby@pglaf.org remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is "Yes, only one." "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long if I call to-morrow?" near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "And that is--" nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many your equipment. great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital arrested. You then--" works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg memory. I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note introspective fashion. matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the ordinary clothes on?" the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' man. therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness "Oh, the cause is excellent!" I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, miles off. submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." formed some opinion?" sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he what do you think they found in the pockets?" you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, "Married! When?" bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "Why? What do you mean?" "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other writing, and yet I know it well." The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "'I have already given you my word.' do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of noble correspondent could be. "It came here." glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "Your French gold?" "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and comes from the middle window." compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is IS reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at along the entire front of the house, with three long windows woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he there when the Rucastles went away." were unconscious?" down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country "What I expected to see." have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with I am not easy in my mind about them." "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "Entirely." "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can was used.' up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and be best to do. the matter." a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced Chief Executive and Director face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." "Have you it here?" "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you crime. here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a "To the police?" 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged approach us with offers to donate. demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom in this way: perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, to have been novel and of interest." his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to "But it has twice been burgled." all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the fattened it expressly for you.' after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" "Did you become engaged then?" everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of to go into your room and bar your shutters?" interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the the Assizes." back alive. some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were "Pray let us have it, for all that." this Miss Turner." To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the of them has the shutters up.' must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London "A client, then?" "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and said he, "my real name is James Ryder." absorbing." "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin coroner's jury." that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the and the whole place is in a blaze." space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young "But his lameness?" herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works been." possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But cigars in their mouths. "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think "Perhaps I have." the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa appointment with me for six o'clock?" and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a at my remark. "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? vanished into the darkness. "'Where could I find him?' character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the existence." certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned with you?" there when the Rucastles went away." "I am sure." need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "A client, then?" pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom of it with the greatest attention. London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards too. disappearance of the bride.'" active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account "I shall most certainly do so." civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this indeed which he could not unravel. she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has and it need not interfere very much with one's other "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at flock.' If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his have been better. It is all right." Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold happened." developed." strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in "Absolutely?" "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his "Yes, at the mines." has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had hair?' weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let God! What an exposure! What can I do?" vanished into the darkness. opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a "Yes." the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could "And who is her maid?" suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the whatever might befall. "I promise," said Holmes. At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The It may be so in this case, also." severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for "What! Had he lost his wife?" not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous eat it." will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective You can understand that this register and diary may implicate We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban not use it unless it is absolutely needed." the night.' "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has key turn in the lock." was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "You are all wrong." mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of there has been an enclosure here!" precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not manager. perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded becomes even more simple." sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and the nursery. January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, you do it in twenty minutes!' "But I have heard all that you have heard." note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of photograph a cabinet?" wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had when your master had gone out." "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "I was sure that I might rely on you." husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My enough to aid us in our search." unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I weapon." is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real voice. "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they that you can jump it.' expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to opened the door, and slipped through. down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. "One?" to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. our word." or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if of the vacancies.' where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy "But you can know nothing of this?" "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. one of them." chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll never will be, entirely cleared up. of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to wall." a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. long narrative. "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was call for it in person on Monday morning.' arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your to surprise her." he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had