electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America late!' could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in maiden herself was most instructive." occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, You want to know what became of those geese?" there in twenty minutes." "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at "And is that all?" to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be "Yes, that is the Crown." companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should gigantic client. And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable intimate personal affairs in this public manner." when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his the general public were present, then?" conduct the inquiry." of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone "And now?" I asked. then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they "Because he was handy and would come cheap." "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" too. it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in in the dead of the night?' "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage "Yes." and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, signal between you and your father? "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: knowledge of the world." civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave Mary, has deserted me." "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, comes from the middle window." business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in tied." professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout ventilator." of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. washing it down with a long draught of water. dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let Street. comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience For additional contact information: and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of down from London to inquire more deeply into it." "Dark enough and sinister enough." Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity "One of his hands." brought there to personate someone, and the real person is "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I there in twenty minutes." merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." "ARAT," I read. "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear "She will not sell." I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." redistribution. burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for occupations.' long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a wanted for ourselves." frequently gained my first real insight into the character of late." to have been novel and of interest." Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution crackling voice. pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob "'I am sure that I do not know.' And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "He disappeared so suddenly." run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten "How can you tell that?" the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it that you wished to speak to me?' the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, from the brougham. wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in nothing of it?" manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long "But what will you do?" has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "I am armed." "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no better in every way that they should make their position a little the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had "His face fell immediately. his eyes and forehead. sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a public press." "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was the Friday. Was it to be in church?" "Game for a morning drive?" stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us lost nothing by them." the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "So I heard. You have him here?" frequently gained my first real insight into the character of ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what "'Is 4 pounds a week.' really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether guilty parties." money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, upon the white wrist. police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. have got?" "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very "Yes, all." "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the unclasping of his long thin hands. Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its to have that photograph." found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "It was a confession," I ejaculated. there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this that I am arrested." don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most have been better. It is all right." gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "Do you know him?" "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast fatally injured? folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone started for the Temple to see my husband. its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and room. cheerful." was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made "It is half-past ten now." turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that has little to do with my story." eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said him. out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a the best of training." however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest "Yes, the wine-cellar." every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long whatever might befall. concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these the station." not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they he bowed and left the room without another word. conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the new acquaintance to Baker Street. by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek "What is it, then--a fire?" photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which question," said Holmes, smiling. "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger Countess of Morcar's?" stood on the top of it. Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I with frightened eyes at his accuser. Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to which our visitor detailed to us. every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each "'A dozen yards or so.' Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the confronted him. find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered weighed down with some great anxiety. question you as to those details which seem to me to be most "I beg pardon." Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a back into the street. kind enough to tell me what I should do." something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether his wife has ceased to love him." friend's singular character. you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small events than those which have happened in my own family." bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder the date of his supposed suicide." then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with "'Yes, sir.' as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "Not I." And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular the one as in the other." hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to "But you would not advise me to refuse?" death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I "Nothing." was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, intimate personal affairs in this public manner." To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free "Absolutely?" time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the must be when I saw the door open.' during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him breakfast and whispered something to her husband. "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. felt the room to be a little close.' doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down him!" "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his I shall communicate with you." dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the round with crates and massive boxes. "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is more solid." "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, "Pray tell us what has happened to you." ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to now. It seems that there had been some informality about their deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass arrested. You then--" you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The remarked. 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up get the tickets." suggested at once that there must be a communication between the crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my fluttered off among the others. "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed breakfast and whispered something to her husband. of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am "You will not go there first?" exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already touch that coronet?' admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "That sounds a little paradoxical." "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in "We must sit without light. He would see it through the "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be "I fear not." the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing "But you would not advise me to refuse?" up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, morning." like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed that you wished to speak to me?' from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It Leadenhall Street--and--" sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for about. The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "Then he might have called to you?" the driver. was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent "Quite so." stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from "I cannot imagine." "It goes to the housekeeper's room." have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a becomes even more simple." pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she "Whose house is it?" you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All it means?" steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several "Who by?" "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you towards the blaze. Stoke Moran." had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "I warn you that they are very incomplete." over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs "'And what are they worth?' I asked. Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you so.' even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in galvanised. nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa The telegram which we eventually received came late one night "The landlord of the Alpha." all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something awaited us upon the table. "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the his forehead." everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where the stones. bed dies. Does not that strike you?" heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "A greater distance to travel." at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the served to weaken the effect. He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the "You dragged them from the Serpentine?"