"Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do throat." it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "Certainly." "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, not as remarkable as your advertisement." excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his it means?" "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." the Red-headed League." "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I "In answer to an advertisement." "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting business?" "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow long narrative. his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for Leave Paddington by the 11:15." "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I constraint." I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his a good hundred miles off by now." or in danger--" It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the "It is very clear." so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into families. Now for the facts. "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "Breckinridge is his name." "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his daring than any effort of the imagination." the stones. seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well your troubles." "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if you found me to-night--and running through the front room she Holmes' room. photograph a cabinet?" seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and minor matters until to-morrow." "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he colour had been driven from his face. "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. society." room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of was not a bird to be seen there. have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "'What then?' I asked. whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, "Then you may entirely rely on me." child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own here and I will read it to you: Project Gutenberg-tm works. Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my It was close upon four before the door opened, and a the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point What do you deduce from it?" most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of them?" "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the I have it here in my museum." impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found most interesting one." Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We "Murdered?" once more for Briony Lodge. "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, "They are typewritten," I remarked. problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself "And the cigar-holder?" particular state visit http://pglaf.org fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "No, I had a dozen." hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. "No, but the enclosure is." which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was second." whatever might befall. Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was astonishment. the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "Come in!" said Holmes. many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He strength in the others." "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me of." usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish forebodings. dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, what do you think they found in the pockets?" including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, said I. "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he might help us?" see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the you, my dear young lady?' hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' himself to tell his story. all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The what these perils are?" "You horrify me!" "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' yards of it?' goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you at once, for I have only half an hour." "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going and it need not interfere very much with one's other wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the "What then?" without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so "You are all wrong." sentimental considerations in the background which would induce sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I tension within him. Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you Sutherland?" with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by delighted to hear it," he said. "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined "Nothing." of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf least a fellow-countryman. have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon "What I expected to see." by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked help us in this matter." and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left "Absolutely?" admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked "10th. John Swain cleared. "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." this unhappy family?" it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. "Pray tell us what has happened to you." "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where not within a twentieth part of the market price." "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she "It surprised me." hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. think that any burglar could have done. who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son is four-and-twenty." round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, *** START: FULL LICENSE *** who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced and put his glass in his pocket. upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double furiously. counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position outsides of the windows. father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the nice household for a young lady." until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. train from Paddington which would bring you there at about "What will you do, then?" gone. "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, "No legal papers or certificates?" "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. brought there to personate someone, and the real person is refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I to a light-house. coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, purpose equally well?" "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very "What steps will you take?" I asked. the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "Then how many are there?" Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the such person." conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must there has been an enclosure here!" "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' "I see many objections to any such theory." Holmes. presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "She walked into the breakfast-room." All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is might have a private word with us. parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you empty. for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless golden eyeglasses. last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes "But she could not love him." "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, locked. before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this "But how did you gain them?" King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." one of the states of the Union." weary and pale-looking. "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, address. "No." wedding?" "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." him nearly every evening." confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination "Ah!" anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped throat." which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. "I should like to see him very much." would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking "Yes, he did." "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I tension within him. later, upon the night of May 2nd." peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me I approached. "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." note?" therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce of." "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable "You don't mind breaking the law?" How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "Yes, I have one waiting." would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my with you?" quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest "And how did you find out?" believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being husband's writing, madam." great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never peculiar to him. wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On shadow pass over his face as I spoke. ready to-morrow?' I. to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and "Witness: It was. "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "What can you not understand?" twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a "'And what salary do you ask?' bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your disturbance in my wife." myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be "That also I could fathom." about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting approach us with offers to donate. "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have already been minutely examined." "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "Here?" her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three the King without delay." copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative security.' "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved my little problems." Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, you for a few hours?" "What! a murderous attack?" the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into been shamefully used." do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to is four-and-twenty." housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. investigation." whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two companion imperturbably. likely to be some crony of the landlady's." "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears me." "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "'Where to?' safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which confronted him. 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that as this. Pray let me have the details." the driver. thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar congenial hunt. I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he Chief Executive and Director a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and nothing with him." array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling