the so-precious time, but come!' envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom room. "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce never to learn it at all." was a loud and authoritative tap. Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this whereabouts. We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "But she could not love him." "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in "About a month then." Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices have I gained?" suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had companion imperturbably. slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at During two years I have had three consultations and one small Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of "The murder was done with it." Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such is acting for the best. we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "Then you may entirely rely on me." ran thus: collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old me." very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But hard-headed British jury." scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but kind enough to tell me what I should do." "How on earth--" "The decline of his fortunes, then?" His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had enter into my head. the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a morning." greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a I was concerned in it." "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. depend upon my doing so.' residence of the great financier. "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a "No." practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after other lovers by making love himself." five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still had picked up in the wood. should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have politicians who had been sent down from the North. thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if "Where to?" "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "I see many objections to any such theory." It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I I. and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He bill, which interests me deeply." disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "I am to be neutral?" "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, where Mr. Fordham shows you.' in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. present strange and interesting features that it is no easy 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, the address that was given us in the advertisement. rooms." 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "What will you say?" fait accompli?" bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my the coronet at all injured?" "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood what these perils are?" from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." second." brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and "Absolutely none." in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to Henry Baker is a member." humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling The events in question occurred in the early days of my You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how From what you have told me I think that it is possible that "Was the window open?" "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." the Friday. Was it to be in church?" "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." asked with his eyes open. he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as "Thank you. And your address?" sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "You forget that I know nothing about it." rose-bushes. was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any him." building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "'In my own bureau.' hereditary King of Bohemia." certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a "My opinion is in no way altered." with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" dear old homesteads?" seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she "Nearly eleven." then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers you, my dear young lady?' carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "And Irene Adler?" "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "One of the highest in England." "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge quick march!" police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we "No legal papers or certificates?" absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy over his head with a sweet womanly caress. gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." was lame." the roots. it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but "Will you go?" "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a the house with me." McCarthy's innocence. Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and into the bag, and made for the door. which was all perfectly true. lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. nonsense.' given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a begin with, and I had not got mine yet." himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes conversation I have gathered that they have been married about wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the the south-west, I see." distance from the station, and there we found the young lady laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his "Yes, all." a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, there were one or two details which were new to me. But the he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come drawing your inferences." loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one an introduction to him?" some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to miles off. the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we "No. What a strange idea!" as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are photograph a cabinet?" before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the of receipt of the work. formed some opinion?" suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my against a man in the prime of life?" copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that off." "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked you in yours." another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter the Friday. Was it to be in church?" Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One "What is it, then--a fire?" the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you that?' "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about village inn over there?" table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin was it brought him the coronet? princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, the warnings." "Then how many are there?" eavesdroppers?' hardly wander." "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father to go into your room and bar your shutters?" I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. considering the formidable letters which were received by himself look upon these things in a different way." your equipment. them?" meant it for the best. theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" "Imitated." "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some "I am about to be married." listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a power." out." Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. minor matters until to-morrow." considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which lips." you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small on re-entering her father's house?" "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. "'It is locked up,' I answered. guilty parties." find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "It's nothing of the kind." be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. against a man in the prime of life?" in this way: classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all generous with you in money matters.' "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her "I see no marks." occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I that you saw all that I did." My friend smiled. thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then formed some opinion?" empty. "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a standing smiling on the door-step. whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! "And how have you succeeded?" recall any case within my experience which looked at the first or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who present." web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, "And did you observe any change in her then?" "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own and wait." nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the upon the white wrist. "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to you?' you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a burst out into a roar of laughter. practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look useful material for showing traces. The double line a little "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in "Entirely." reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have "No bad?" would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a pictures, libraries, or plate. face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could you?" Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. sound at heart." if she died from some sudden fright." "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the happened." docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the very peculiar words of the dying woman?" and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "Yes." "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew front of the hall door has given its name to the place. Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans,