might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." "Could he throw no light?" drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we "But she could not love him." "Yes." think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between before, for it was considerably after midnight. and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry even of instruction." about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to excitement. "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well strength." "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which "No legal papers or certificates?" settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get must compliment you." rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he "We have tried and failed." "And it is--" Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project business." corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "What, then?" prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I peculiar to him. hurried away. will he say when he returns?" happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his sit on the left-hand side of the driver." peculiar to him. "I have hopes." "Ample." first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the "Why? What do you mean?" "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got look upon these things in a different way." "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a "Because he was handy and would come cheap." "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "'It is locked up,' I answered. that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from trifles." to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." "But what is it you wish?" forbidden door. Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the again, where I was soon asleep. therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and suddenly upon us." it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. fled together." confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off his wife has ceased to love him." conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly "And you thought he was pulled back?" fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. "What then?" we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a attention." remarked. heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." hurried away. McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." to-morrow." Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, American. Then who could this American be, and why should he chance." of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I and shall probably return to London by the evening train." framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after "Pray do so." specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in bird I ate is country bred." were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a was the fact that his father should, according to his account, "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "'In my own bureau.' this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in the inquest, and which are worth considering." crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the call for protection in the marriage market, for the present of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to lost his Christmas dinner." "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless meanly of me." beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old "Witness: Nothing definite. "No, my brougham is waiting." the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "What will you say?" that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was there is a decided draught." There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "'How far from the body?' "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my golden eyeglasses. while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he secret." "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive "Yes." "Ha! you find it so?" secret." "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of breakfast and whispered something to her husband. seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, have one." suspect him." desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, "'Which dealer's?' "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon coroner's jury." conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." "Stolen." mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at into the room. "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little hereditary King of Bohemia." "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little sentimental considerations in the background which would induce mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** flock.' me. You must get home instantly and act." him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no tied." "He slept on the premises." disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "Why serious?" for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place child?' course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when events, Mr. Windibank!" rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my was keenly on my guard against him. house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might what I may call a really hard day's work." downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "One of his hands." about. desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, will be renamed. the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. away to you." the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so Pool. it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this that, and I came down." "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering tied." excitement. "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not breakfast?" that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "At half-wages, in fact." The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "What is it?" anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and "How do you know, then?" to-night." sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her "Texas, I think." more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I my former friend and companion. The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks there in twenty minutes." donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that "Entirely." All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." suggested at once that there must be a communication between the and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every fashion which was peculiar to him. and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" you?" window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of placed his cuttings. opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his the address that was given us in the advertisement. four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a business at Coburg Square is serious." morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course Street. rose-bushes. use an arc-and-compass breastpin." does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." information in his hands the value of which he did not himself assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about which should have the effect of calling the attention of the down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the weapon." leaning back in his chair. That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "My opinion is in no way altered." To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, *** START: FULL LICENSE *** forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "No?" have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend just ask you whether you had heard it.' American. Then who could this American be, and why should he bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think "Your sister is dead, then?" himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until yards of it?' of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. entirely lost his self-respect." Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained "Oh, yes, easily." LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if "I am armed." plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "'Is 4 pounds a week.' then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. "Seven!" I answered. unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. "'It is locked up,' I answered. superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the Countess of Morcar's?" Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the shall not find me ungrateful." "A greater distance to travel." not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "I beg pardon." six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his few hundred pounds.' of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are go from here to the Strand." course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the bore every mark of being an average commonplace British had a long day." "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, upon the shelf for the interim." and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the mystery!" the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never you give your casting vote to?" placed his cuttings. "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the did not hear it also.' interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. "Ah!" shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot new duties?' places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the "Ten will be early enough." and that he would see to anything that turned up. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a page at http://pglaf.org Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little was feeling which was the fattest.' beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the means taking possession of that which another person has a prior and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in him nearly every evening." one or two very singular points about this room. For example, "I assure you that I am in your hands." the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. awkward doing business with an alias." matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "No?" surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire perplexity from it to my illustrious client. in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the "But we can't all be." interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a some mystery and the punishment of some crime." offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up little adventures." of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the