chair. prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to "That is not always so easy." from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and own family. "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and companion. centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and discontent upon his features. after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford shag which I had seen upon the previous night. entirely lost his self-respect." my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes both be extremely obliged.' the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think "I cannot as yet see any connection." the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The "On the contrary, this is the right side." for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. "Perhaps we may make them less so." "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons carpenter." wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "So it appears." "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the during that time.' Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its "Was he the only applicant?" upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the that he has suffered." likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "'Certainly not. But why?' me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the lost his Christmas dinner." now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the strength in the others." by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he this man was intellectual?" matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the over here." America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had was lame." incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly desk. the Red-headed League." entirely lost his self-respect." "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his hard-headed British jury." forebodings. fasten all the windows?" after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have "You'll never persuade me to believe that." pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a assist you in forming an opinion." not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my "My opinion is in no way altered." made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "How did you trace it, then?" breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close sooner or later she must fall a victim. my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch 1.F. other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey "None." surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office have I gained?" despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the "She will not sell." rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "Then, how do you know?" "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the "What! a murderous attack?" that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was "I don't believe it." many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of humiliation." shadow pass over his face as I spoke. "That also I could fathom." it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter wedding?" stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat detective. "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still "Stoke Moran?" said he. experiences." "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare you, my dear young lady?' person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found "Not in a good cause." son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock seem to you to be relevant or not." "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." touch that coronet?' Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been married her." grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the the armchair which I pushed forward for him. my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the there." singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink do you make of it all?" which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." "It goes to the housekeeper's room." not, dad?" she asked. Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "And when will you call?" "But to whom?" she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** "Then I can wait in the next room." figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the to Leatherhead. was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and residence of the great financier. in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "How did that help you?" "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United "You'll never persuade me to believe that." maid will bring up your coffee." confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to I took the paper from him and read as follows: "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "I should be immensely obliged to you." "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "Pray do so." the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London might have a private word with us. mysterious business." constraint." should be taken.' quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural train.' "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most "Yes." was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not distance from the station, and there we found the young lady very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in she might be summoned. governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I The King stared at him in amazement. wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and on in his house." husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep out." Sutherland?" labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided who was a member of your goose club." was it brought him the coronet? "And help." "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the to a more successful conclusion." hurried by. the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter you?" glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to second window is the one that I jumped from." thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning it." from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and of this gang." heavily into it. crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "Very truly yours, 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, than was visible to me." skylight. idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the approach us with offers to donate. but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security ordinary clothes on?" better grown goose." his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room "Pray do so." "'And the work?' "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into once more to my work. black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. "'How far from the body?' him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right "Married! When?" was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he "10th. John Swain cleared. and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never Holmes. what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which something of him before." "How did he come?" And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an weary and pale-looking. It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." she used." "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a and all of them with the keenest interest. locked. leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and showing my impatience. the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which "I say it is." confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which McCarthy's innocence. nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then I leave." "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat quickly through a disagreeable task. this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such be sorry for having acted so harshly." the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very of the way of danger. searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near he died? Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." and inquire as to the address." even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a your own bird, so if you wish--" "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was distance from the station, and there we found the young lady he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. arrangements." "10th. John Swain cleared. follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the lectures into a series of tales." luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault "'Ample.' with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than power." considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" again on its way. smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a colour had been driven from his face. man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman girl said." "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since read over the extraordinary announcement. London for the present?" Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting remarked. seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again papers must be those that are destroyed.' "No. What a strange idea!" that threaten you." "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, October 9, 1890. that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see back alive. my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "I cannot as yet see any connection." prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. "But of what society?" benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it and glanced through. evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned highroad, where all traces were lost. "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "Did you become engaged then?" the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous