thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to towards the blaze. of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me respectable self." Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "I will try. What is it?" "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by tightly behind him. with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which important." "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, completely overtopped every other consideration that we both instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the "I am about to be married." discontent upon his features. of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the cup of tea. phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if "But not more so than I to find you." "'I am sure that I do not know.' "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the "And how did he make his money?" man. I know him from the photograph." therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses answer." "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different families. Now for the facts. tear off another piece?' form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable friends, not even his own brother. hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the followed. "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "I don't believe it." "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." hurried away. nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think friends, not even his own brother. "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The yourselves in at night?" "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, like that before?" be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the 1.F. "It is very kind of you." with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an "What then?" chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "So I have heard." "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "Well, some hundreds of times." successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four burst out into a roar of laughter. lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the "So I am. Very much so." undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored this man was intellectual?" thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that some place of shelter and let the county police know what has the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. careless servant girl?" "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't such person." form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very Again Holmes raved in the air. therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" "I will try. What is it?" its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. "Bought." came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which "Certainly, madam." understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time "By no means." new duties?' speckled band?" to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was some terrible trap for her." "Precisely." the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "It is possible." "What steps will you take?" I asked. repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man "The best possible." "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. "To the police?" very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house showing my impatience. sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an nice household for a young lady." The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great something of him before." me have 200 pounds?' "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, "It is a murder, then?" leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely name is different." Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a threw himself down with his face to the pillow. The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your "Then, how do you know?" where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle are, I think, all that we need." coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son His smile broadened. chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. "And I." buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as "Then you may be so with me." successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "9th. McCauley cleared. death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe and have this put in the evening papers." "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. fishes. "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw to-night?' realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and mysterious business." did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "It may not come to that," said Holmes. the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head "But to whom?" week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I even of instruction." showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when writing, and yet I know it well." however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek point our research must commence, and we will begin it by a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small forecastle of an emigrant ship. anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can "'And what salary do you ask?' emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over Lee, in the county of Kent." across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your "Witness: It was. little adventures." right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. are windows in it, of course?" "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his new acquaintance to Baker Street. She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise simple cases which are so extremely difficult." ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there the very morning of the wedding." of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the Sutherland. But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is "A client, then?" last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, closely." wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some "My dear Holmes!" something of him before." "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I always that they were such commands as a lady might with you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry undoubtedly my uncle's." read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." "I say that I have solved it." band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, floor. possible that we could bring him back to her? used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a stammered. instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside politicians who had been sent down from the North. of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "My opinion is in no way altered." which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told in the dead of the night?' wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" "I was certainly surprised to find you there." better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, visitors." the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. had no one to advise her at such a crisis." public press." very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "You'll never persuade me to believe that." "'Yes.' and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the more solid." moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "Because he was handy and would come cheap." I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our "The Cedars?" for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for their singular warning or token before them when starting upon which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." of." "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was "What do you make of that, Watson?" "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! before the coroner and the police-court." Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by his huge brown hands. endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "'In my own bureau.' "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same confronted him. been." the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of success. my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle "What shall I do?" attention." swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head "You have the photograph?" the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what there." opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great her also." Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to "And from a noble client?" vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper as the one I chose?' closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the nights." this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" undoubtedly my uncle's." gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," of the one which your family is now devouring." "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time was keenly on my guard against him. the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some nice household for a young lady." there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always whether it answered to the description of any of their "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, delirious. it means?" quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his you." Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a "I cannot say that I have." to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a might help us?" The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "And why?" I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds is four-and-twenty." this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe.