presented more singular features than that which was associated "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "Ah, but I was recommended to you." "The best possible." she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. just ask you whether you had heard it.' fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." begun to whiten, even as mine has." "'Ten to two.' Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" was lame." "What will you do, then?" business in the City. She little knew what. would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole there were so many in the whole country as were brought together dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been from the brougham. the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were "Witness: I must still refuse. 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager "'I have heard so.' all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place Cross for the Continent." his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" hereditary King of Bohemia." "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my Sutherland. returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on happened." Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the are, and they are waiting for us." "What shall I do?" serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "I cannot think." order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. there in twenty minutes." he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' "And I to find an enemy." glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. "Then you may entirely rely on me." Cross for the Continent." "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything "Perfectly so." "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "Then what has happened to him?" the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a long narrative. deduce something from that?" wedding?" you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my arrested. You then--" window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was your billet.' "So it appears." I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." "Why, it's a dummy," said he. maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What your Highness to the police-station?" upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of presented more singular features than that which was associated in your London, you will know that the office of the company is his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and "I was afraid that you were engaged." see a sister of mine apply for." right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project front of the hall door has given its name to the place. which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in direction." had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a and all of them with the keenest interest. back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If on re-entering her father's house?" 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they to you." Have you good authority for what you say?" it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "Her father is very rich?" The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know annoyance, but no jest. "Indeed! Whose, then?" postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day where Mr. Fordham shows you.' south, for the country is more deserted there." were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some once more to my work. "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do "'What do you call purely nominal?' understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so For additional contact information: events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very must compliment you." "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do "I see many objections to any such theory." and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the "When did she vanish, then?" is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her of a light. grasp, he hurried from the room. "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." place, I think that there is good ground to think that the garden below. "The doctor?" Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after "I should wish to." unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down details." there was no need for father to know." I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a secret." "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her fasten all the windows?" from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I copied or distributed: "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the tear off another piece?' "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and completely overtopped every other consideration that we both I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this him and tried to hold him back. "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent ceremony." "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "At the wedding breakfast." I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to done what I asked you, Jones?" "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "We have tried and failed." into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no door?" Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "I promise," said Holmes. quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making "But we can't all be." persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other where Mr. Fordham shows you.' shall not find me ungrateful." thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the became a certainty. frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would "'Yes.' of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "But who is he?" hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. "And how in the world did you find them?" His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "'Certainly not.' back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and outside." "Well, but China?" investigation." that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves the roots. "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the vanished into the darkness. He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this weary and pale-looking. his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I I have it here in my museum." vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If excitement. and capable of preserving a secret.' their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it examination of the premises, but without finding anything which my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' photograph?" and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers "Tired-looking or fresh?" laugh and put his lips to my ear. result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped voice. to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what amused." arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter "What?" look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring prepare for the new role I have to play." is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and murdered man." The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he morning." and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From been deceived." been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. Stoke Moran." works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough feature." remarked. "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off how narrow had been my escape. at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem the roots. colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make you." "It's nothing of the kind." Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak "And I." younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, I leave." the matter." Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" someone who had been in Australia." see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. "And why?" last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her observed. every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two few hundred pounds.' have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's their singular warning or token before them when starting upon PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK photograph?" populous neighbourhood." "Get out!" said he. "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the Literary Archive Foundation recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "You don't mind breaking the law?" From what you have told me I think that it is possible that written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of sound at heart." reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the vanished into the darkness. should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan washing it down with a long draught of water. "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." to tackle the facts." inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy for the market.' clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "And now?" I asked. discontent upon his features. "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of man. Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. "Nothing?" things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it fear." hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose Surrey." he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand that there was nothing in it, after all." client, rising. condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a read over the extraordinary announcement. all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' "My photograph." such attractions and accomplishments?' my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be he bowed and left the room without another word. who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly of fine shops and stately business premises that they really distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly