Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to cost them two and thirty pounds." as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I "A client, then?" into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came this unhappy family?" minor matters until to-morrow." about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest matters immensely." of campaign. lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and 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 pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. there were so many in the whole country as were brought together occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in at once, for I have only half an hour." "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us "Is he quiet?" heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." "'As governess?' granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of if only as a check to my own memory." my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may as noiselessly as she had come. we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." have I gained?" "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I "Never." "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "What! a murderous attack?" and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere opportunities to fix the problem. upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast this Miss Turner." THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the the south-west, I see." when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and train from Paddington which would bring you there at about Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If in. see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the "How did he come?" true." having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William "'Tell me all about it,' said I. would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see the Red-headed League." Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "'Certainly not. But why?' back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from "On your arm?" "One of the highest in England." "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the not use it unless it is absolutely needed." Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense the so-precious time, but come!' "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily and the colonel ushered me in. waste of energy." very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, to-night?' savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the fatally injured? "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said tied." At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself one which it was hard to resist. "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the everything which you would wish to know." and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her to his chemical studies. it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a American. Then who could this American be, and why should he "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I there has been an enclosure here!" You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his best detective that ever lived. he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps matter." rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that good for you to do.' could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into place no limit on the sum I may draw." number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to hopeless attempt at recovering them." figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately electronic works nonsense.' confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in acted in my house last night?" "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, "No, my brougham is waiting." agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another I. the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any someone who had been in Australia." "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have key turn in the lock." should be taken.' One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous "'I shall certainly be there.' "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I "I know where it is." "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler paper in the air. help us in this matter." International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp "But your client--" instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an ready to-morrow?' agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers down. "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers "Never." "'And the work?' doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we "No." look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom "Precisely so. But how--" used to be." thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed "Yes." and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "Just look it up, then." in a friendly supper." said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "Yes, only one." the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, maid will bring up your coffee." stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We voice. "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very if only as a check to my own memory." Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that is worth.' who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" shall not find me ungrateful." would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece "Dark enough and sinister enough." "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and to you." the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the present strange and interesting features that it is no easy freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "It looks newer than the other things?" "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return For additional contact information: "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. "Yes." And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign heavily into it. Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He few hundred pounds.' trifles." Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden rat could hardly pass through." of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you she has been waylaid. There has been no result." the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom The telegram which we eventually received came late one night At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a emerged. family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass assist you in forming an opinion." at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third interest. They are important, you understand, without being went to the Alpha were town bred." wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; "Proceed, then." of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I directly by questioning you." know all about it," he snarled. "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his thirty. "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "Frequently." "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "Imitated." door?" other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of room?" ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be "And it is--" contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth the tragedy. the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his "Breckinridge is his name." and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "But what is it you wish?" him." impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this lamp. you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it success. You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a "But he might be a bachelor." "She showed me, as I told you she would." whatever might befall. something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival miles off. "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and salesman. once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the "Certainly." "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is pressing in one house as in another. "Your presence might be invaluable." usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, lamp. This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is Sutherland. not within a twentieth part of the market price." glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly not use it unless it is absolutely needed." time." seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which most interesting one." "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I not, dad?" she asked. will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way "But your client--" "I should be immensely obliged to you." the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my 'I should be able to look after that for you.' papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are locked. say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged come either from the window or the door. My attention was "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew character. away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his was lame." through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "Yes, all." a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked paper in the air. generous with you in money matters.' from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." tell him that I know him to be innocent." was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." "But how?" room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some had died away into the silence from which it rose. hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while to talk it over. world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the "Will you bet, then?" herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I "Always." drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. "The gentleman I describe." about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor really the only notable feature about the thing." companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to Heh?' sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for again." ready to-morrow?' "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to