bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She "Was she in good spirits?" from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which done what I asked you, Jones?" other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we examine." note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I noble correspondent could be. even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously "You have but to name it." should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted gives a meaning to it." together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the tied." Gutenberg-tm License. rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can conversation I have gathered that they have been married about his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he had died away into the silence from which it rose. "In the cells." "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of business in the City. She little knew what. metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." "Yes." copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. discontent upon his features. "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it handed it to him. gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. gbnewby@pglaf.org process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. strength in the others." broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "It is very kind of you." Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "My dear Holmes!" little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of dramatic, in fact." you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the "Where is it, then?" reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could here." will not take me long to tell. pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three "What!" he roared. "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building "What do you make of that, Watson?" "Yesterday." clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any Miss Holder?" afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood learned something! Where are the gems?" "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with infinite languor in his face. likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was right! Sit down and let us talk it over." here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' into her hand at the door and which lured her within their man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular bare slabs of marble. works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means be best to do. the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "Witness: It was. lost his Christmas dinner." "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "Only as much as we can deduce." Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with "No sign of it?" felt the room to be a little close.' of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which Leadenhall Street--and--" He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a held up the lantern and gazed about him. to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head I leave." was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." think that any burglar could have done. "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "By all means." fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "No." "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" His smile broadened. inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "That is also quite modern," said the lady. original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some "I would give my fortune to have them back." fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." and inquire as to the address." "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." did not hear it also.' very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All "Were they all fastened this morning?" "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a suddenly upon us." here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists Pope's Court. happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend carried out of court." Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with already referred to. The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not in the dead of the night?' our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "How did you trace it, then?" your co-operation." casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her she to prove their authenticity?" "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed "No, I had a dozen." Leadenhall Street--and--" your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain III. help us in this matter." Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love to tackle the facts." whether it answered to the description of any of their "Proceed, then." "'As governess?' "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. "But how?" sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is "Then I do not see the point." dead, shall be safe with us." hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far "I don't believe it." money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense "At half-wages, in fact." and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform ceremony." to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house observed. relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are The telegram which we eventually received came late one night with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. "Why serious?" has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from "That was it, sir." and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I detained." "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "No, my brougham is waiting." blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a "No, thank goodness, she did not." Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. "Imitated." patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to delighted to hear it," he said. side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and narrative." list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the key turn in the lock." "Precisely so. But how--" "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, whatever might befall. 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" "Yes, only one." and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk shoulder. world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" his huge brown hands. is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such presume?" "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, 'please.'" lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey "'And what are they worth?' I asked. "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, money should be paid at once.' "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "'Certainly not.' man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and fattened it expressly for you.' months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a carriage. It was a chestnut." "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told on re-entering her father's house?" "Not I." other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." breakfast?" "That also I could fathom." what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another in a very precise fashion." is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a Literary Archive Foundation protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," presented more singular features than that which was associated the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." as he remarks, very much against the son." "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he "His face fell immediately. think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were me have 200 pounds?' this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable infinite languor in his face. I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My done what I asked you, Jones?" is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept "I cannot think." man. peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally train.' the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." conversation I have gathered that they have been married about "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. over part of the map. "What do you read?" footfalls from the street. should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was "'It is locked up,' I answered. decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some "From his hat?" demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some criminal. We have already had experience of such." Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears the address that was given us in the advertisement. suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there gone. The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes point our research must commence, and we will begin it by treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "Game for a morning drive?" I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread "'What would be the hours?' I asked. and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. because she had spent so short a time in this country that she keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "Yes, from Horsham." extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "It certainly sounds feasible." "Dr. Becher's." will take you up to see the machine.' "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, foot. "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, "I saw her in conversation with her maid." and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature "I cannot tell." "Proceed, then." erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" washing it down with a long draught of water. arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most