For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "The knees of his trousers." likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one narrative." think, you have already met." slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing "Yes, from Horsham." When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone confronted him. ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and and that he would see to anything that turned up. As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and you do it in twenty minutes!' lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "I don't believe it." circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New "It is very kind of you." But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons me where it went to?" "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you "Well, it is a possible supposition." "I see many objections to any such theory." when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall new duties?' guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. residence of the great financier. it? Did I buy the geese off you?" Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "In which, sir?" have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "Never." Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely crowd. wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or business at Coburg Square is serious." in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just your own bird, so if you wish--" my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined "Dark enough and sinister enough." unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had a very grave face. suggested at once that there must be a communication between the respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was presented more singular features than that which was associated is entirely a question of barometric pressure." o'clock is it?" "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were helping a boy to put up the shutters. and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "'What would be the hours?' I asked. "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in your co-operation." "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "That sounds a little paradoxical." housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" http://gutenberg.net/license). "But who is he?" eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. spare." son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "Ha! you find it so?" "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, like gravel from a pit.' "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez tell me that you intended to go into harness." himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may cheerful." "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "I will do it." asked with his eyes open. than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his "From his hat?" who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project six. Come in!" saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will past. "My stepfather's business papers." "What?" Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "And how did you verify them?" 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and and the whole place is in a blaze." "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I hurried away. and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a works. See paragraph 1.E below. will he say when he returns?" the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. his huge brown hands. "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an "No legal papers or certificates?" the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the think you a quite exceptional woman." As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round "Why serious?" "Do you go out much in society?" and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six call for it in person on Monday morning.' Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The it." seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for already referred to. man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has IS determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "'Very good.' the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle stammered. "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all The note was undated, and without either signature or address. "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce "And is that all?" ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was "The rest you will leave in our hands." "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my what is your own theory as to what took place?" will be renamed. "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given least a most suspicious remark." and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "I would pay ten." it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his meanly of me." have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." delighted to hear it," he said. near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A tell him that I know him to be innocent." "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now it." a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother to-morrow." admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your a very grave face. they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence face and glided from the room. which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old the matter." my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets such person." I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "But what will you do?" "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge kindly on the shoulder. him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of companion imperturbably. case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the was shining brightly. our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" do you make of it all?" "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was where she found matters as described by the last witness. "And now?" He raised his hand. a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very notes," he said. the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "In answer to an advertisement." wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, held up the lantern and gazed about him. professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately approach us with offers to donate. even so self-evident a thing as that." "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a think you a quite exceptional woman." client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "Very much so." "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and plantation.' future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." wedding?" some place of shelter and let the county police know what has each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return the one as in the other." back into the street. view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The events than those which have happened in my own family." "None." ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from room?" "'What would be the hours?' I asked. gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and the loss of it. absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or ill-usage at the hands of fortune. "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my train from Paddington which would bring you there at about instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their "'What then?' I asked. running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to the child." dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening my little problems." who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the morning." "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." "Did your wife hear all this?" to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get "What have you to say now?" who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and this truth that in these little records of our cases which you upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest Gutenberg-tm License. "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, "I never have." father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in right! Sit down and let us talk it over." severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, one's self under obligations.' sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. comes from the middle window." "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to "Where did you address your letters, then?" affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his national property. I was determined that the law should have its assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included "What shall I do?" ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the "Yes, it would be as well." open." where we are going." of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, present." "You horrify me!" and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in which our visitor detailed to us. "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us so.' empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "My own seal."