"Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If once more for Briony Lodge. there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his "BALLARAT." stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." here." He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he the matter." impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand vague figure huddled up in the darkness. plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at straighten it?" Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." asked. "Yes, from Horsham." to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my "You know me, then?" look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" are, and they are waiting for us." down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a yards of it?' my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he him. "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid power." perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "'No, I know no one in these parts.' "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after Countess of Morcar's?" whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather "It is no ordinary one." and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the chance." "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door could not have written that. It is the German who is so the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "It is possible." upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the examine." how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "Why? What do you mean?" upon the white wrist. violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and matter." and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we "Did he not advertise?" sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at "Yes, it would be as well." visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close "Not in the least." chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. "What are they?" having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but his face. explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a that there was nothing in it, after all." set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we already referred to. of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the "Pray tell us what has happened to you." Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I opened the door, and slipped through. few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a "Pray tell us what has happened to you." "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that "I was mad--insane." the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. examine." presented more singular features than that which was associated "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now "Frequently." along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those imbecility!" he cried. glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was "Nothing." his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" which are rolled in Rotterdam." forecastle of an emigrant ship. This is what he says: disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double I was concerned in it." style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any presented more singular features than that which was associated arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your assist you in forming an opinion." the best of training." never came back." the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying matters immensely." the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new vault. crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows kind enough to tell me what I should do." correct than the official force." any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now have been better. It is all right." gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his mysterious business." to miss it." served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and upon the white wrist. that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is answer." points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something "Imitated." "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; must compliment you." and looked back. in your London, you will know that the office of the company is that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his "I will do it." my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is who was a member of your goose club." narrative." opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual sooner or later she must fall a victim. prepare for the new role I have to play." the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for then?" "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence "His face fell immediately. slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would where we are going." Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion you want, then?' "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have for its centre. cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "Very much so." what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. "Then I do not see the point." "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass "And you can do nothing until then?" Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the walking." case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole "I am about to be married." was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they must compliment you." appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "Never." 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the His name is Francis Prosper." envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken just ask you whether you had heard it.' leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." walking." "Get out!" said he. possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced this truth that in these little records of our cases which you father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, nothing with him." thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me there!' One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. hopeless attempt at recovering them." were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of was a lad." "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "A thing like a cleaver," said he. next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, to where he stood hid behind the curtain. sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, of Mr. Rucastle's." once more. to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his the matter?" many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the "Could he throw no light?" "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" "Well, but China?" life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his The police have openly confessed that they can at present make Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his "Then I shall certainly come." married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. down. photograph a cabinet?" in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his and shall probably return to London by the evening train." other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of and the whole place is in a blaze." cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "How did he come?" gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety "No. What a strange idea!" suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which unprecedented a position." "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave just ask you whether you had heard it.' and effective." Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." weary and pale-looking. scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "No, thank goodness, she did not." What do you deduce from it?" what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, mystery may be cleared along those lines." power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a flock.' "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still rat could hardly pass through." together. outside. abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of opened the door, and slipped through. my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "Yes." actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of meanly of me." next day. Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a that he has suffered." I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my will he say when he returns?" estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of learned something! Where are the gems?" "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "What then?" Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated foresight and the moral retrogression?" Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "No." Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your I leave." call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows "I should wish to." tell him that I know him to be innocent." round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. place, I think that there is good ground to think that the not interfere, come what may. You understand?" Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." respectable self." Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite other lovers by making love himself." of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness this Miss Turner." "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a I held the little printed slip to the light. hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body "Ten will be early enough." with the outside air!" with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss photograph?" intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which Eyford at 11:15.' he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I their singular warning or token before them when starting upon Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 him to go away.' "But how will you look?" overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. "I fear not." 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a "No. What a strange idea!" shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and question you as to those details which seem to me to be most pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down "I will do it." the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country "Then you may be so with me." attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. which I could not give. He asked for Alice. 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He beg that you will break it off." "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished bearing upon the case." "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom Project Gutenberg-tm works. B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The to-night." right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could learned something! Where are the gems?" police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and written, and locked the door of the office after me. Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew "'Oh, no.' of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to clanging. 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman "Yes, that is the Crown." upon an income of about 60 pounds." hopeless attempt at recovering them." colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "May I see it?" "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal "I cannot tell." "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" was used.' Literary Archive Foundation There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the than was visible to me." the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, "What shall I do?" preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with and it need not interfere very much with one's other "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that room had already been engaged for us. suspect him." while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the entirely lost his self-respect." "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon strong and stiff." some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was and have this put in the evening papers." "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" very morning of my second wedding." he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." province." learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled