slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of that, and I came down." "If I can be of use." have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it as the one I chose?' gentleman's clothes. "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I taking in every detail of the apartment. "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just him." "No legal papers or certificates?" parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking persecution?" comes from the middle window." I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which had formerly been in part my own. there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I cause to be." this Miss Turner." consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. unprecedented a position." and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that fasten all the windows?" air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." the station." small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked returned to France?" decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, some mystery and the punishment of some crime." "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which I took the paper from him and read as follows: The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and "'Yes.' forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. presume?" that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent opportunities to fix the problem. strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and where we are going." facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." "None. Neville wrote those words." lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow of Mr. Rucastle's." avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there threw himself down with his face to the pillow. about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, go back?" there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you shaken than I had ever seen him. collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "If I can be of use." I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. tied." which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "'Not at all. I only doubt--' nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable went to the Alpha were town bred." "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, three of the beryls in it, was missing. "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a promised to bring home. this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "'Yes, it was gone.' "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the straightened it out again. me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. lamp. Doctor, of the paper and the date." happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed been deceived." meant it for the best. fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which outbreak?" "I came to find a friend." got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, "But how did you gain them?" "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I point our research must commence, and we will begin it by had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time bore every mark of being an average commonplace British "'I am sure that I do not know.' to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn "That is it on the dressing-table." for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil do." its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed delighted to hear it," he said. professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates do.' "Perhaps we may make them less so." "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have silent! Oh, he will be silent!' hereditary King of Bohemia." rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds not within a twentieth part of the market price." his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback back alive. Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "No. What a strange idea!" have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true one else, I think." "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought "I promise," said Holmes. me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer from the brougham. evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" "Well, some hundreds of times." "'And the work?' events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his for and were ordered to this address. may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There think that he is innocent?" could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round look dissatisfied." red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." second window is the one that I jumped from." "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place that he will be back before evening." that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves note?" "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works yards of it?' fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching "'Very good.' 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "Oh, the cause is excellent!" everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to "You did not overhear what they said?" could gather together that I was able to avert another public of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, particular state visit http://pglaf.org and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever carpenter." her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "Imitated." breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened secret." he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other matter." my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little answered with a sidelong glance. a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while his cane at the bell-pull. "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "Can I be of assistance?" Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for "And what then?" "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City I have it here in my museum." afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all depend upon my doing so.' and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to more terrible than the truth. "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "Will you bet, then?" interests were the same as his." often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." "No sign of it?" "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a to-night's adventure." While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and garden below. suddenly upon us." "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should formed some opinion?" glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our coroner's jury." puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened the side-table." "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he "Were they all fastened this morning?" it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have question," said Holmes, smiling. "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I light and attacked it." suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." eat it." fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." presented which may be striking and bizarre without being later, upon the night of May 2nd." "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on "Did your wife hear all this?" aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand "None." Arthur Conan Doyle tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite Munro.' will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "I fear not." seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked shaken than I had ever seen him. opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some horse could go." returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, voice. "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. had a long day." panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." suggested at once that there must be a communication between the said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a gigantic client. PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it gone before you can get him to hospital." It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this some city in a dream. highroad, where all traces were lost. right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question was a loud and authoritative tap. problems help me to do so." round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would were wasted." similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle there." a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. despair." our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. front of the hall door has given its name to the place. husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your "What! a murderous attack?" "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to already referred to. slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, back into the street. "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my once more. phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project ourselves in the office." "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much where she found matters as described by the last witness. desk. high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about "How many? I don't know." in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than "A client, then?" I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police "No, I think that I'll take it." took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he shaken than I had ever seen him. statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to without a word or a look. round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That or other trace. But how on earth--" wedding?" follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our someone who had been in Australia." like that before?" conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly is four-and-twenty." his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon "And your father? Did you tell him?" the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," that I can to serve you." set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be with some details as to your case." scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would events, Mr. Windibank!" clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out Eyford." quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. clanging. walking." the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a meanly of me." "Certainly, madam." been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows,