"'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "Why did you pick him?" "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he "Then I can wait in the next room." said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, depend upon my doing so.' "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you this unhappy family?" Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. matter." things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "Holmes, the busybody!" SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "Who by?" coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with she slowly sank and died without having recovered her seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the fasten all the windows?" "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of long narrative. had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a "Upon what point?" remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "I think it very unlikely." "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. brought there to personate someone, and the real person is across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, and the colonel ushered me in. glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent "That is unusual in a young girl." at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better "And Miss Sutherland?" have an American origin." eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In dramatic, in fact." my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. been with you?" to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his digesting their breakfasts at home." "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "What will you say?" seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It of your young ladies.' have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I bed dies. Does not that strike you?" widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and purpose of examination. avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with already been minutely examined." I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream green of the new foliage. and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On happened." not within a twentieth part of the market price." "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as letters?" the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of quite distinctive." vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination "Where to?" Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the in a very precise fashion." have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush to some other building. "'I have heard so.' The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said "Have you it here?" red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, fattened it expressly for you.' "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that "Witness: Nothing definite. so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! himself. to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "How are you getting on?" liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his ventilator." him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of hands. Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are "We must have a cab." "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows "There is the writing." only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with drove away. "'Yes, it was gone.' Street. say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come noting anything else of interest. mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "And you don't know his address?" the nursery. The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, the coronet at all injured?" that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to "'Is purely nominal.' I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair "And you don't know his address?" you?' eavesdroppers?' "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, way in." back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding vanished into the darkness. "He disappeared so suddenly." there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and once more on the important position which you have been fortunate lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the hand, madam?" whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, crime." and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." front of the hall door has given its name to the place. evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they his wife has ceased to love him." hair?' round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of away into the river." to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he delighted to hear it," he said. sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of upon the sideboard." slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "About a month then." clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of "From his hat?" "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I the devil!" most interesting one." "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and intrusion of other matters." a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, nothing of it?" arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven cheerful." heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to "Well, some hundreds of times." appeal." that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "Yes, there are nearly always some there." impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. on in his house." "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. think you a quite exceptional woman." "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his with you alone." arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight "How did you trace it, then?" however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in in the dead of the night?' "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. "And how did he make his money?" "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This Lestrade of Scotland Yard." opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. whereabouts. "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. "'It is locked up,' I answered. flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" the best of training." attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your "Did your wife hear all this?" brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon "Then what has happened to him?" and the whole place is in a blaze." eat it." minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and ready to-morrow?' of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a directly by questioning you." thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of happened." 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She nothing of it?" laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his Mrs. Toller serenely. I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is was it brought him the coronet? "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to and your relations to her." hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further is a common subject for conversation. sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite "I know where it is." age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden "I shall be delighted." "I was certainly surprised to find you there." have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me "Always." association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), what these perils are?" body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, "And what did you see?" you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "Perhaps I have." "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my simple cases which are so extremely difficult." I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution at home. matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I Watson," he said cordially. "But how?" week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, "But how did you gain them?" before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate the tragedy. "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is opened the door, and slipped through. could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly arrested. You then--" furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you "On your arm?" I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to "But his left-handedness." the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "By all means." Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good "That is easily got." "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." call for protection in the marriage market, for the present and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: child?' "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker "What then?" "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, "Yesterday." Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the advice." finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "'And what salary do you ask?' the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "Pray do so." absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which bell. Holmes whistled. status with the IRS. why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal against a man in the prime of life?" feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I way in." the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood be sorry for having acted so harshly." about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. someone who had been in Australia." see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove that coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party