wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "'I shall certainly be there.' have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "How did you deduce the select?" He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even joking. opened the door, and slipped through. Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made you." Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. "But how could you guess what the motive was?" Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "Now, then, what's the last entry?" crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of him to be an active member of the medical profession." the nursery. "Did your wife hear all this?" Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he invisible to me," I remarked. grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the "Never to return." contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" detective. some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" out of this horrible affair." "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There been lifted and conveyed somewhere." problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the it means?" this truth that in these little records of our cases which you murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination James Windibank. Voilà tout!" for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. "Entirely." here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return prepare for the new role I have to play." was once confined in the cab my mission was practically practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who ways of our fellow-men." "How on earth--" Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the said he. were new raised from a basin. should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of direction." "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the "At what time?" which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my "In what way?" asked Holmes. sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had "Then he might have called to you?" downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an allusion to a rat. "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, "Then I can wait in the next room." small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. case-book, which he consulted. "Yes." arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found man. status with the IRS. was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive investigation." himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has o'clock is it?" over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change better in every way that they should make their position a little violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, "Only as much as we can deduce." shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City believe that I should never have any practice at all. home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "I promise," said Holmes. "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but his knees, staring into the fire. With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when most interesting one." "'And what salary do you ask?' The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons writing, and yet I know it well." result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, burst out into a roar of laughter. liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in long narrative. extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this to have been novel and of interest." Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the place of silver." article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." one or two very singular points about this room. For example, we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of DAMAGE. one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you yet." an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended and wait." ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If "And I to find an enemy." not within a twentieth part of the market price." get her out of the way." his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in it with his own hands." it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I fishes. frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones "But you would not advise me to refuse?" peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to Sutherland. Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and will not take me long to tell. paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a instincts rose up against that laugh. was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my character. can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. death." PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK "The Cedars?" they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" tied." behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "When did it break out?" quickly through a disagreeable task. Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at "If so, much may have happened between." "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's companion. other lovers by making love himself." distance from the station, and there we found the young lady unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between "'What, the red-headed man?' "What will you say?" words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential which I could not give. He asked for Alice. temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another subject to the trademark license, especially commercial baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an one's self under obligations.' visitors." McCarthy's innocence. resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. she used." - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my "'Is 4 pounds a week.' the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. "Deserted you?" it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us walking." with some details as to your case." call for it in person on Monday morning.' sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not chamber." are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "Game for a morning drive?" from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "Precisely so. But how--" perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said just ask you whether you had heard it.' 'please.'" "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir "Yes, from Horsham." stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for in him." expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a directors, with the result that you have seen." "Here?" the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the peculiar to him. screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the good-night and bustled off upon her way. a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an crime. to-night's adventure." Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and as noiselessly as she had come. nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in "No." mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the spark where all is dark to me." Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" any more." the south-west, I see." enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that golden eyeglasses. honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged night.' said he. tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab me. this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. Mary, has deserted me." "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "It is true that I have been generally successful." labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the crackling voice. Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that presented more singular features than that which was associated luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman you understand?" ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every indeed happy." was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "I have solved it." "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how grasp, he hurried from the room. "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the should be taken.' "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. presented more singular features than that which was associated It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let "It's nothing of the kind." "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall some city in a dream. My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, of campaign. the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he Stoke Moran." "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and colonel looking down at me. office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "Frequently." If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to with the outside air!" about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train such attractions and accomplishments?' "Yes, from Horsham." pierced for earrings?" the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an families. Now for the facts. be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense were new raised from a basin. first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment garden below. the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening himself to hunt down. "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I geese which you supplied to the Alpha." "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should "The Coroner: What do you mean? us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' acquaintance?" doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he just called myself is not exactly my own." tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the "But I am all in the dark." some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to never came back." upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you wanted for ourselves."