was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric and a shock of very red hair. been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of father's young wife. It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either of your young ladies.' "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I intrusion of other matters." when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. were new raised from a basin. "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of what do you think they found in the pockets?" really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, and capable of preserving a secret.' ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in said I. going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, "The best possible." They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me is worth.' He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great directly by questioning you." "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his "Yes." "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I over with notes and figures. green of the new foliage. battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to and the colonel ushered me in. "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "Pray let us have it, for all that." "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over sparkled upon his finger. several quiet little villages up there." any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay imbecility!" he cried. "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to chamber." his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method them?" granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an that, and I came down." "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made breakfast and whispered something to her husband. with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, "So I have heard." "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to "I saw her in conversation with her maid." the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I his face. of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because "Yes." slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard meant." this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." bed dies. Does not that strike you?" workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that be.' directly by questioning you." the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here past. a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest should be taken.' compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises with you?" "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her "And you don't know his address?" The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself Surrey." long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through "I cannot say that I have." "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an looking up at the numbers of the houses." corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as thirty. "Yes." This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would "Well." is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. "A confidential servant?" "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, the running down." unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all "'In my own bureau.' "I am all attention, madam." would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly ourselves in the office." "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence shall not find me ungrateful." "I know where it is." remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat man. the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat giving me time to thank him. subject to the trademark license, especially commercial Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have he. "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. public press." obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter in him." snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side this remarkable episode. large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at became a certainty. you give your casting vote to?" national property. I was determined that the law should have its he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "'I am sure that I do not know.' I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, you." and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, annoyance, but no jest. electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are of them has the shutters up.' "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." father's place of business?" lumber-room." word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and "He slept on the premises." shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "And your father? Did you tell him?" have had none more fantastic than this." a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs again." nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler speckled band?" and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him good for you to do.' The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We off." grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." the south-west, I see." this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a which are rolled in Rotterdam." was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, carried out of court." "We were both in the photograph." "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "Was there a secret marriage?" the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming any." How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that "Where, then?" "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and "Yes." "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, "Proceed, then." its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to of the way of danger. wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. the address that was given us in the advertisement. secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the yourselves in at night?" opened the door, and slipped through. incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "But she will refuse." read it out to me." "'Not at all. I only doubt--' "I am about to be married." that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all that observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew do you make of it all?" gone. she slowly sank and died without having recovered her encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I have I gained?" receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass "No, distinctly professional." my room." "Was your sister dressed?" triumphant cloud from his cigarette. confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked "What will you say?" that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who tied." "'Tell me all about it,' said I. "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor you want, then?' Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his 11:15.' "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man "Yes?" fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a problems help me to do so." the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced think, you have already met." two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. cigars in their mouths. became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached down from London to inquire more deeply into it." "I think it very unlikely." and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient him to go away.' daring than any effort of the imagination." "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and to have been novel and of interest." you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an our word." very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know "I know where it is." "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! rat could hardly pass through." she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was "A confidential servant?" misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, Holmes' room. Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite careless servant girl?" the inner apartment." "He might." called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in never to learn it at all." assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I her also." every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. "'What then?' I asked. Chief Executive and Director recall any case within my experience which looked at the first just called myself is not exactly my own." What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but people don't know." "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went and that he would see to anything that turned up. continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When "Eh? What was that?" "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, exactly what you advise." "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some together. his grey eyes. "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped it? Did I buy the geese off you?" tell him that I know him to be innocent." license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my weary and pale-looking. terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! stalked out of the room. pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked "And for present expenses?" "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "'Which dealer's?' got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through ceremony." "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to floor. elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. observed. he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened "Why, it's a dummy," said he. and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." "Not yet." "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' one of them." visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "And you thought he was pulled back?" but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, some water from a caraffe. them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, "No." that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco your only hope of safety." come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose desk. "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "How did you trace it, then?" had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that