gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am envelope. to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the him. on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to gone. liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than searched, without anything being found which could incriminate built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I orange pips. matter over." "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from the driver. "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers Chief Executive and Director peculiar to him. estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from bill, which interests me deeply." Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to Street. "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I "Certainly." "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first eavesdroppers?' grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence of the one which your family is now devouring." His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present awkward doing business with an alias." mystery may be cleared along those lines." John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father "I cannot imagine." what do you think they found in the pockets?" dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their "Yes." strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that used to be." in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need "What then?" maid will bring up your coffee." the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "Why did you pick him?" seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE spare." reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a several quiet little villages up there." used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "An accident, I presume?" is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred companion. fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, "Thank you. And your address?" it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more "'What then?' I asked. "Yes, it would be as well." and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What in. "You'll never persuade me to believe that." impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took answer." existence." "Yes, they were peculiar boots." glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "Was your sister dressed?" case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of gbnewby@pglaf.org as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, cause to be." the tragedy. course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" has little to do with my story." "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "So I have heard." outbreak?" to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my country, and eventually married, without anyone having a to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have or other trace. But how on earth--" transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a digesting their breakfasts at home." my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very "Her father is very rich?" I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "Then I shall certainly come." firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that wall." It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: "I should wish to." Watson," he said cordially. "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of together. circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who it." bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone back to my heart. ill-usage at the hands of fortune. sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called "Will you go?" "At half-wages, in fact." the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the "And why?" "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "'As governess?' "But the mystery?" "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not "Yes." man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, said he at last. been lifted and conveyed somewhere." It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her brain must have something in it." Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the ill-usage at the hands of fortune. Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. "'Where could I find him?' a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." to affect your life." "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem in the dead of the night?' visitors." someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a "Absolutely?" conduct the inquiry." save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. "What! You do not mean bodies?" "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At maiden herself was most instructive." matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the showing my impatience. clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, into her hand at the door and which lured her within their it. was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." not interfere, come what may. You understand?" fact, we may call it conclusive." Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and down. pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible rat could hardly pass through." cigar and let me expound." was used.' been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' touch that coronet?' of his shoulders. "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year should be taken.' yourselves in at night?" himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to to-morrow." quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper "I have seen the police." photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less been able to understand it, in a very few words. plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by she to prove their authenticity?" opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and business in the City. She little knew what. came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging here." all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." the King without delay." sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue "I answered that I had not. deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as correct than the official force." card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming depend upon your compliance." in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in persecution?" "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being was already answered. have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "Her father is very rich?" Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you noting anything else of interest. have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed instincts rose up against that laugh. go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That father's young wife. strength in the others." clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and enter Dr. Roylott's room." with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. the coronet in his hand?" "Awake, Watson?" he asked. interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. McCarthy." however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who strong and stiff." gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of was the fact that his father should, according to his account, 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you really the only notable feature about the thing." anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in "And who is her maid?" "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way "When did she vanish, then?" their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' purpose equally well?" her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." foot. lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a here." he. cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the with some details as to your case." watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered thin legs towards the fire. turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "What are they?" of a light. and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check "Yes." summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were in my life." a few minutes he said that it would be all right. been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "Will you bet, then?" with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady stalked out of the room. has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and "A thing like a cleaver," said he. forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy there when the Rucastles went away." expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted It may be so in this case, also." dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know important." bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the like gravel from a pit.' Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it better grown goose." a little more before I quite committed myself. the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with vault. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three "I am armed." has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. any." fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The gone. of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry wife's character?" intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would