the south-west, I see." which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, prepare for the new role I have to play." "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which "What! You do not mean bodies?" the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. "It is possible." Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was soul! here is her carriage at the door." the nursery. on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a Lestrade of Scotland Yard." Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself the matter." sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for upon the shelf for the interim." flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "He might." my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the conversation I have gathered that they have been married about "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is light and attacked it." my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are said he. her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until some mystery and the punishment of some crime." "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from mystery may be cleared along those lines." "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me our word." But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my recall any case within my experience which looked at the first rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." is worth.' "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "'I have already given you my word.' see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, "One of the highest in England." "No bad?" than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version you do it in twenty minutes!' fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought into her hand at the door and which lured her within their "My own seal." this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a brain must have something in it." "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which village inn over there?" away in different directions, and I went off to make my own one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "How on earth--" facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." help us in this matter." sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, "The doctor?" "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a it were putty." observed. "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second a room. the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going written. battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time mystery may be cleared along those lines." "Only as much as we can deduce." shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been introspective fashion. Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I forecastle of an emigrant ship. "Nothing?" the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, was already answered. bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very sooner or later she must fall a victim. erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. "I see many objections to any such theory." unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the "What is it?" he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and "But what is it you wish?" the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of chance at all." of a light. lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "Precisely so. But how--" animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our His smile broadened. he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the if I call to-morrow?" my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a interests were the same as his." possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your "You have a clue?" Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am wife's character?" a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you hopeless attempt at recovering them." "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two against a man in the prime of life?" nothing of it?" the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" row." "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a stepfather?" you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "I came to find a friend." "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped Street. "What is it?" foot. least a fellow-countryman. mystery!" served to weaken the effect. was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not any little problem which you may submit to me." Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "That was it, sir." when your master had gone out." even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come orange pips. and files of the old papers, following the future career of every you understand?" "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall "Ha! you find it so?" hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the that you wished to speak to me?' girl said." He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands four million human beings all jostling each other within the cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of very old mansion. way in everything. empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass "'Is purely nominal.' be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was highroad, where all traces were lost. "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw address. a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to been." glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the and glanced through. There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of Mrs. Toller serenely. centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the asked. with the outside air!" "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "It is solved." upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from certainly do as you advise." passage and a tap at the door. with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying trifles." Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, "Yes, at the mines." Chief Executive and Director gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a that I am arrested." Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "Not him." deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "Eh? What was that?" running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom you do it in twenty minutes!' remarked. cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." breakfast?" learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "'And what salary do you ask?' adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to character. ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "But how could you guess what the motive was?" upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, than to us. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without "How did you deduce the select?" "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "Indeed! Whose, then?" "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold are, and they are waiting for us." dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," least a most suspicious remark." side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that lamp. "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong the coroner come to?" police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, fire. You quite follow me?" as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I forebodings. law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a said I. round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced bill, which interests me deeply." have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard fluttered off among the others. "The best possible." Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he outbreak?" careless servant girl?" America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His The telegram which we eventually received came late one night as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged companion. piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of this Miss Turner." I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if whatever might befall. some mystery and the punishment of some crime." the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable you." "About a month then." while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible that I may have something better before very many minutes are line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "Where is it, then?" Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; held up the lantern and gazed about him. "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual the station." the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we head. So long, then!" day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were was the fact that his father should, according to his account, overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would any more." her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a think that he is innocent?" zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "Oh, yes, easily." effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do "And you don't know his address?" everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in evidence," I remarked. mysterious end." vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which "But what harm can there be in that?" I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "Yes." "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste