remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the "What! a murderous attack?" showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an "Certainly." the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the this man was intellectual?" "Entirely." tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs may never be exposed to such a temptation." among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about "I would give my fortune to have them back." destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" me what he had done with the three missing stones. can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no "It is half-past ten now." "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "'Most admirably.' "'A dozen yards or so.' you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice "Yes." deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now have an American origin." observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low "Will you go?" purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. possible that we could bring him back to her? Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" visitors." "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know "You have but to name it." it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "Come in!" said Holmes. be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could Project Gutenberg-tm works. "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a green of the new foliage. The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now away in different directions, and I went off to make my own object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of "Whose house is it?" law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that dear old homesteads?" "Yes." detective. foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us again." bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to really the only notable feature about the thing." "Then you may entirely rely on me." Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of empty. "You were travelling in the States?" "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "He is dead," cried several voices. across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. "But I am all in the dark." "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, "None. Neville wrote those words." that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know the side-table." England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, she to prove their authenticity?" matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little closing the door. "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am will he say when he returns?" you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found have I gained?" occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any that you can jump it.' recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange attention." the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous "Yes, from Horsham." window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and "'Certainly,' I answered. ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to "A thing like a cleaver," said he. whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a affection." would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his that threaten you." "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence the general public were present, then?" It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his think you a quite exceptional woman." The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of Lestrade of Scotland Yard." with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "They are typewritten," I remarked. a few minutes he said that it would be all right. "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my gone. and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is "Nor running a chance of arrest?" "And Irene Adler?" and a shock of very red hair. third from London." the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to putting in the horse. loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" might help us?" Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm "Yes." "Witness: I must still refuse. feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was could not have written that. It is the German who is so have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. Again Holmes raved in the air. to a more successful conclusion." "'And what salary do you ask?' the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted cigar and let me expound." he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for Pope's Court. of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and me what he had done with the three missing stones. ordinary clothes on?" "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after as he folded up the epistle. Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the The summons was a brief and urgent one. "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with you for a few hours?" Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am The telegram which we eventually received came late one night "Ten will be early enough." your billet.' "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six strange features which were associated with the two crimes which empty. "Yes." Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My his grey eyes. a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, as he folded up the epistle. presented more singular features than that which was associated tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the make me his representative both with the servants and with the had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my intrusion of other matters." "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in easy-going way." I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman me have 200 pounds?' will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who Mrs. Toller serenely. the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the hurried away. "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let "What! You do not mean bodies?" and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing companion. hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope "And it is--" sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place up this clue while it is still hot." some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, nonsense.' The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that "In answer to an advertisement." conceal it?" "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "You have but to name it." she has been waylaid. There has been no result." He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this train.' without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and Again Holmes raved in the air. the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my the general public were present, then?" Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed she has been waylaid. There has been no result." "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would "You are certainly joking, Holmes." the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, infinite languor in his face. a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. best detective that ever lived. "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he "You don't mind breaking the law?" joking. Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes "Now, then, what's the last entry?" perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself of campaign. case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." "And who is her maid?" Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry be best to do. conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation "And you can do nothing until then?" TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well once more. have accepted such a situation. "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis "But how could you guess what the motive was?" stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we "But we can't all be." "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another License. You must require such a user to return or "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." the running down." before, for it was considerably after midnight. (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. do." again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, "In heaven's name, what for?" just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had appointment with me for six o'clock?" morning." and looked back. never came back." "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms way: Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray "Not yet." round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to three of the beryls in it, was missing. was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, entirely devoid of interest." "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" villagers almost as much as their master. retorted upon me, and I on you." started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "'How far from the body?' "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A "I guessed as much." eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to "A client, then?" "Not social, then?" "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our "What of the rat, then?" "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed "'Certainly not. But why?' a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet "Yes, there are nearly always some there." the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned excitement. Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him shaken than I had ever seen him. "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" "It is a murder, then?" brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the very morning of my second wedding." waste of energy." it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A rooms." roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he overpowering excitement and concern. formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were him. friend's singular character. Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I chill to my heart. in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, pound a week." that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America disturbance in my wife." Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little that there was nothing in it, after all." sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made me have 200 pounds?' reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" his face. until night should bring an explanation.