and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds "Will you bet, then?" lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending less than 26s. 4d. out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such drove away. quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to know all about it," he snarled. "Breckinridge is his name." mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider that, and I came down." understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the will take you up to see the machine.' "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his chamber." papers on the sundial.'" this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the Munro.' International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to his cane at the bell-pull. widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria closely." you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have him and tried to hold him back. Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. side. word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "And who is her maid?" upon the shelf for the interim." education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads comes from the middle window." vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, "But you were on a friendly footing?" "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I the night.' "And leave your case unfinished?" If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to "Why serious?" a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his at home. places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for "And I say east," said my patient. opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, the station." "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" "Ah, but I was recommended to you." It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed away in different directions, and I went off to make my own were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have breakfast." "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from instituted." in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in allusion to a rat. had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the that before taking the final step I should like to submit the cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very "'Tell me all about it,' said I. "Oh, the cause is excellent!" Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from me upon any point which I do not make clear." a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. Stoke Moran." "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to pierced for earrings?" Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon until night should bring an explanation. very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of look dissatisfied." back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face "Nothing." Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his tapping his fingers upon the table. have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." "What do you make of that, Watson?" be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no place no limit on the sum I may draw." say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." I leave." you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers "Yes, I have one waiting." quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." experiences." man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon Edgeware Road. earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would unclasping of his long thin hands. "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that "I answered that I had not. unkempt, staring out at me. I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter rat could hardly pass through." "One of his hands." derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or "It must be recovered." which are rolled in Rotterdam." entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea to Leatherhead. fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, girl said." my friend's incisive reasoning. be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch matter." the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in "That is not always so easy." very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and seem to you to be relevant or not." sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "But what harm can there be in that?" little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "It's nothing of the kind." "Pray do so." "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. to his chemical studies. I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your "I am still in the dark." my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, "Entirely." doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and "I was mad--insane." adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where about. All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." more solid." skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been "No. His orders were to stay in the house." 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "At the wedding breakfast." distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw "Oh, the cause is excellent!" and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is "And leave your case unfinished?" have one." struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as "He is dead," cried several voices. "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. a little more before I quite committed myself. secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord is acting for the best. door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is your equipment. James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do "Oh, fresh and glossy." to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his "That is also quite modern," said the lady. know what is wrong with it.' Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for the roots. Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," empty. the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project "Yes, he did." "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. compunction about shooting them down." "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "You forget that I know nothing about it." to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of Gutenberg-tm License. learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. evidence," I remarked. at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the strong reason behind." few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my of your young ladies.' anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned man. eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of during the last few years, and there are many noble families to He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out that "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing one of them." Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a "I am to be neutral?" crackling voice. alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was "And why?" "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the "Nearly eleven." doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had "Indeed! Whose, then?" this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every But Holmes shook his head gravely. our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "Holmes, the busybody!" massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It happened." week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by You can understand that this register and diary may implicate stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor carriage. It was a chestnut." "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never with the outside air!" sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got sake, don't!" the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but License. You must require such a user to return or computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal the south-west, I see." other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over it." mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing bonnet, and went out." felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done husband's writing, madam." whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "Nothing." however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the nothing of it?" was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and prove to be little relation between the different incidents of was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature security.' India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his "And how in the world did you find them?" business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now "And how?" same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. questionable one." asked. "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears how narrow had been my escape. the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, the nursery. as yours." thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of more solid." Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that leave you to your papers for a little." or other trace. But how on earth--" resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the you." away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no recall any case within my experience which looked at the first The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to occupations.' forebodings. "Yes." computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "When did she vanish, then?"