other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer and wait." shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well what these perils are?" metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "Of Friday, June 19th." to have been novel and of interest." "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be 1.F. it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked Again Holmes raved in the air. Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told Holmes' thin, eager face. came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn British peeress.'" as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a and a shock of very red hair. "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at "You have it, sir, just as it happened." dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. ventilator." there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" 'please.'" had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to Eyford." 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' during that time.' do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man are, I think, all that we need." son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that "I am still in the dark." observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his results." "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic any." seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low giving me time to thank him. lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of himself. the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There "Which surely he restored to their owner?" "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, "The landlord of the Alpha." again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of "Do you go out much in society?" "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. wall." another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess fat-encircled eyes. and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for was not a bird to be seen there. reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be "I should wish to." and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock "To the police?" doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, to his chemical studies. once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it some city in a dream. "It goes to the housekeeper's room." hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence which was all perfectly true. "There are none." stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of room had already been engaged for us. "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "The murder was done with it." his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "That is possible." his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no learned something! Where are the gems?" will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from in his power. paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't telegram would bring me down to your help." him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in Where does the thing come from?' read it out to me." the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to "Oh, fresh and glossy." rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution chance at all." there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to fact, we may call it conclusive." a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible character. He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet impression behind it as though a window had gently closed over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which "And now?" He raised his hand. freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of "Did he not advertise?" his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "You have a clue?" myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon true." "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and delirious. and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may me where it went to?" the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found results." reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was to where he stood hid behind the curtain. the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is were unconscious?" works. labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has breakfast and whispered something to her husband. tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "My dear Holmes!" in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is "It is his hat." is entirely a question of barometric pressure." dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know "And the cigar-holder?" to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And purpose of examination. wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a that before taking the final step I should like to submit the which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a easy-going way." death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "It must be recovered." with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "It was." said he, "my real name is James Ryder." horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest "None." controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by the devil!" "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord bill, which interests me deeply." of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, think that any burglar could have done. The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that test if we have an answer to our advertisement." Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the with you alone." 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "My dear Holmes!" possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the was it brought him the coronet? window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "Yes." tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in weary and pale-looking. heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of The note was undated, and without either signature or address. almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among third from London." us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at "He disappeared so suddenly." upon the sideboard." "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do stalked out of the room. upon the sideboard." and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with "In the cells." which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "I have solved it." scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me nonsense.' heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do "Has he come with you to-night?" "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" examine." puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the weary and pale-looking. owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where power." pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little License. You must require such a user to return or "No." "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that "She walked into the breakfast-room." disappearance of the bride.'" copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in "I think it very unlikely." the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say together. might help us?" cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood morning." screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William Literary Archive Foundation "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting ill-usage at the hands of fortune. the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" second window is the one that I jumped from." signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it gone. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows your own bird, so if you wish--" Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have "'I am sure that I do not know.' "Indeed! Whose, then?" difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in sake, don't!" I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his mystery!" round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of salesman. relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very nights." recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made questionable one." "Have you it here?" equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been bird I ate is country bred." the general public were present, then?" it with his own hands." father's place of business?" "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal my special province." "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If province." "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He anything to a woman, for she would have her way." treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you quickly through a disagreeable task. were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was of them has the shutters up.' of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in charged with?" loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "Yes." for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in "And did you observe any change in her then?" faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. "His face fell immediately. "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. it." answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. narrative." customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." open." Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "Ample." you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and tell me that you intended to go into harness." crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United late!' across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey third from London." premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. point our research must commence, and we will begin it by "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after roused himself from his reverie. highroad, where all traces were lost. Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, them, and came down just as you departed. her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "Perhaps we may make them less so." hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his your bag." assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the with frightened eyes at his accuser. there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up to affect your life." Leave Paddington by the 11:15." "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled allusion to a rat. how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your "I am all attention, madam." ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: "I cannot tell."