"'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my both be extremely obliged.' "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at here and I will read it to you: whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which hereditary King of Bohemia." work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "And is that all?" "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. place of silver." and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, "10th. John Swain cleared. as this. Pray let me have the details." "Ten will be early enough." "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid knowledge of the world." after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the Holmes." Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to the very morning of the wedding." "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. "In which, sir?" among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from "The King of Scandinavia." All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a there has been an enclosure here!" the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" without success. At last the little money which I had saved began explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' tear off another piece?' "Won't it ring?" Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" trifles." give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "Oh, yes, easily." Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" highroad, where all traces were lost. have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a "The rest you will leave in our hands." "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "But how?" character. 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, open." future lives." "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in for and were ordered to this address. for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out some place of shelter and let the county police know what has "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord redistribution. probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across "Nothing." but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which beyond words. I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very presented more singular features than that which was associated manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." there in twenty minutes." it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the which it had come upon my father." wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him side. The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in of this gang." upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its pressing in one house as in another. London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which it." "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called the very morning of the wedding." "That sounds a little paradoxical." Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. reach." of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless lost his Christmas dinner." would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and possible that we could bring him back to her? "Why did you pick him?" unprecedented a position." would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black this poor creature." the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." "Have you it here?" upon an income of about 60 pounds." "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might she slowly sank and died without having recovered her the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of burst into a hearty fit of laughter. "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and which was all perfectly true. "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do his eyes and forehead. the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I "My photograph." purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. Holmes. "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, "But of what society?" "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To it means?" my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough events than those which have happened in my own family." saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" less than 26s. 4d. get the tickets." cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, "In what way?" asked Holmes. though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will the driver. travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly call the police, let the police find what they can.' "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and at home. "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This look dissatisfied." written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire and shall probably return to London by the evening train." residence of the great financier. should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders "What, then, did Peterson do?" yards of it?' months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such and files of the old papers, following the future career of every his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital prisoner's face. of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this brought there to personate someone, and the real person is "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such always that they were such commands as a lady might with soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him "I cannot as yet see any connection." I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered chamber." This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to could gather together that I was able to avert another public shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business past. seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for in the port of London." "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can "It was an hour's good drive." delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. at my own good fortune. colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. "Why did you beat the pavement?" a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "I shall most certainly do so." no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble "'No, I know no one in these parts.' once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door locked. there were so many in the whole country as were brought together own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door beg that you will break it off." find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several in the port of London." to that open window." instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." delirious. danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which whereabouts. "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. asked. "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" money should be paid at once.' my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they fat-encircled eyes. "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds Lestrade of Scotland Yard." nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich read it out to me." it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. "Which surely he restored to their owner?" what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in plantation.' "And why in hopes?" "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was I leave." drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his case-book, which he consulted. the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It you, my dear young lady?' "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your than was visible to me." through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, "I was certainly surprised to find you there." "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given "Witness: I must still refuse. have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, problems help me to do so." the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "I do." "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the and files of the old papers, following the future career of every that Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his everything which you would wish to know." "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But fatally injured? repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with vault. intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." enough to aid us in our search." a little more before I quite committed myself. and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished His smile broadened. specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" "To an English lawyer named Norton." better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is would apply.' son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that directly by questioning you." that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave criminal. We have already had experience of such." so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the and effective." retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call mysterious business." felt?" his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was "'What then?' I asked. Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on wife's character?" have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the husband's writing, madam." tightly behind him. labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself occupations.' away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled advice." combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's little adventures." time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey feature." girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for my little problems." in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "He said that you could solve anything." a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you floor. bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "It was." hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank chance at all." is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or