do.' he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies of this gang." that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "Absolutely?" "My opinion is in no way altered." case-book, which he consulted. affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It "Seven!" I answered. "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of he bowed and left the room without another word. hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor chamber." with you alone." sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to carriage. It was a chestnut." looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out your own bird, so if you wish--" Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point something of him before." envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the ceremony." thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been look upon these things in a different way." To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." side. has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was certainly not very gracious." why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." she has been waylaid. There has been no result." which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right into her hand at the door and which lured her within their "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "Nothing." "What can you not understand?" you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons pictures, libraries, or plate. could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round persecution?" "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for walking." "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told business at Coburg Square is serious." "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' works. See paragraph 1.E below. but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest during which he might have communicated with his friend the at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying assist you in forming an opinion." His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they information in his hands the value of which he did not himself even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "But his left-handedness." what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. see a sister of mine apply for." rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." cause to be." suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "If so, much may have happened between." that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the nonsense.' who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' my special province." from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "And the cigar-holder?" acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' Literary Archive Foundation thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just "And how have you succeeded?" in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow "Married! When?" harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as felt?" "I cannot think." how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London orange pips. delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" silent! Oh, he will be silent!' possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' here." and it need not interfere very much with one's other the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in "At what time?" hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the shall not find me ungrateful." you for a few hours?" great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far promised to bring home. "You horrify me." death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." "No bad?" staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now I nodded again. station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one once more on the important position which you have been fortunate ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. Pool. almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through undoubtedly my uncle's." and inquire as to the address." "And I to find an enemy." rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was asked. leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I "But his lameness?" "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "Why serious?" blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be gigantic client. he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age there when the Rucastles went away." goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and photograph?" on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates someone who had been in Australia." the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "Then, how do you know?" 11:15.' "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in "Then the page we have seen--" well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I "And for present expenses?" understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed straighten it?" listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in "Won't it ring?" or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the forecastle of an emigrant ship. Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up was lame." through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into them present such singular features as the strange train of "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What brain must have something in it." step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged there in twenty minutes." "But his left-handedness." "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said few hundred pounds.' "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg a monotonous occupation." "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, "You have carte blanche." "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of appointment with me for six o'clock?" however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his Clair, of Lee." them, and came down just as you departed. wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. "She walked into the breakfast-room." miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and formed some opinion?" with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in he died? course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, "He said too much." housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, evidence," I remarked. bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "The Coroner: What do you mean? I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' strong and stiff." "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are pity, because in other respects you would really have done very "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "And how did you find out?" other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the about. "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It "Nor running a chance of arrest?" for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon "I have hopes." "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "Not I." would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "Ha! you find it so?" again." "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists During two years I have had three consultations and one small is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not confronted him. which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said "He said too much." not as remarkable as your advertisement." second window is the one that I jumped from." them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "Certainly." "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From in him." to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. the coronet in his hand?" "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door bled considerably." of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. "No. What a strange idea!" up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the "What can it mean?" I gasped. matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "'Where to?' "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other man. continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "They are typewritten," I remarked. "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I dead, shall be safe with us." for and were ordered to this address. should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small questioning and rather startled gaze. "Did he not advertise?" Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of extraordinary contortions. accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout me upon any point which I do not make clear." highly," said Holmes. cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he lumber-room." We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you You can understand that this register and diary may implicate were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He she to prove their authenticity?" "I will get her to show me." convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it morning." so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the chair. her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would "Yes." said I. "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in heavily into it. in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had question. time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to politicians who had been sent down from the North. my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is open." job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to "And the murderer?" by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a "Entirely." against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who electronic works "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the