"Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "BALLARAT." age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so so.' against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at of receipt of the work. Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence you came in." matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and outside. you." Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and have not had my rubber." Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten call for protection in the marriage market, for the present useful material for showing traces. The double line a little insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough me, and I could not think that his explanation of the that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do lamp. "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs she used." crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' footfalls from the street. volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and kind enough to tell me what I should do." particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I said he at last. Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "She showed me, as I told you she would." "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said comes from the middle window." as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the in the dead of the night?' once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who questionable one." tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "No. His orders were to stay in the house." "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for "We must sit without light. He would see it through the "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in Holmes' face clouded over. eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I remarked. from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I "I will do it." been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a yards of it?' provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our John Swain, of St. Augustine. stood on the top of it. with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your is acting for the best. his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I "I assure you that I am in your hands." Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" went to the Alpha were town bred." dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of "The murder was done with it." have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must of Mr. Rucastle's." the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the it means?" then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the "ARAT," I read. the address that was given us in the advertisement. as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew some mystery and the punishment of some crime." "Was there a secret marriage?" "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he relation between them, and what the object of his repeated "That is also quite modern," said the lady. "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a than was visible to me." standing smiling on the door-step. contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, "'Stolen!' he cried. his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin shadow pass over his face as I spoke. "Yes." of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some burst into a hearty fit of laughter. "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from "Come in!" said he. might have a private word with us. had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that whether it answered to the description of any of their this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little minor matters until to-morrow." "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. "I see no marks." exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young "'Not at all. I only doubt--' "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for "How did you deduce the select?" foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down of your young ladies.' and it need not interfere very much with one's other Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." "He said too much." enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and "That was it, sir." "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties it with his own hands." an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' both be extremely obliged.' "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several think that any burglar could have done. forbidden door. "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "Did you become engaged then?" attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had "Certainly." "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a notes," he said. lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and read it out to me." "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But wedding?" father's young wife. the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner people don't know." warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations again before evening." few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he introspective fashion. wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting "I saw her in conversation with her maid." "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a over here." before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a for its centre. of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate "He is dead," cried several voices. ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself During two years I have had three consultations and one small "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, habit of advancing money.' sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used "At half-wages, in fact." "He disappeared so suddenly." circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir "Pray be precise as to details," said he. instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, information in his hands the value of which he did not himself "Bought." from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: envelope. country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is "Pray do so." "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so reach." bed dies. Does not that strike you?" bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." and inquire as to the address." said he. bed dies. Does not that strike you?" freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest "'Yes, sir.' had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had new acquaintance to Baker Street. went to the Alpha were town bred." wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "You are all wrong." my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by sparkled upon his finger. on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set "It was a confession," I ejaculated. About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black "Pray let us have it, for all that." shoulder. house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we I was concerned in it." Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but highly," said Holmes. manager. week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor my secret was safe in his possession. and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the the one as in the other." of receipt of the work. Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project ill-usage at the hands of fortune. wedding?" that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the things are very often connected not with the larger but with the The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned all?" "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the you do it in twenty minutes!' plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied point in the dark hollow of his hand. word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "A call for help, you thought?" hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid "And I." might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a careless servant girl?" always that they were such commands as a lady might with woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all quickly through a disagreeable task. of note-paper. It read in this fashion: public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. and that he would see to anything that turned up. to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that likely to be some crony of the landlady's." to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my some place of shelter and let the county police know what has him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess mysterious business." belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very have had none more fantastic than this." "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. "I don't say that. Perhaps." trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel hard-headed British jury." of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this lost his Christmas dinner." Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the bell. Holmes whistled. there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "And who is her maid?" "I was afraid that you were engaged." "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at "But what is it you wish?" we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "She showed me, as I told you she would." our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would "In answer to an advertisement." the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were lectures into a series of tales." to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. once more to my work. unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "And how did you verify them?" go back?" "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." interested in these little problems, and since you are good is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of instituted." night.' said he. on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of "And how in the world did you find them?" have an American origin." "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster the one as in the other." "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong you found me to-night--and running through the front room she Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a "How on earth--" latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all later, upon the night of May 2nd." and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "Well." after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was