"Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and third from London." "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "By no means." "Was the window open?" "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It "Eh? What was that?" dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, this Miss Turner." "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he friends, not even his own brother. should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small with you alone." saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." to tell." country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "Have you her photograph?" "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can down. had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "Then, as to money?" process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "It is to him that this trophy belongs." upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted "Yes." purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "But you have hopes?" think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. to that open window." sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that whatever might befall. dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of sparkled upon his finger. closing the door. entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return into the room. wedding?" that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from "The best possible." ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & copied or distributed: young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "'Is purely nominal.' prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my This is what he says: which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was photograph?" "Not particularly." behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while way in everything. "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past criminal. We have already had experience of such." dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout Watson," he said cordially. the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into John Swain, of St. Augustine. "Her father is very rich?" dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and "But how?" thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "The landlord of the Alpha." her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was happened." said he. of it with the greatest attention. anything to a woman, for she would have her way." when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my dramatic, in fact." and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger happened." "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in "Because he was handy and would come cheap." "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' "But his left-handedness." yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking room?" Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. with frightened eyes at his accuser. chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I been anything against him. He had for years been known as a determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how asked. were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; "'Yes, it was gone.' Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" "By no means." woven round him. matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." "But you were on a friendly footing?" "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few "Were they all fastened this morning?" general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your "Did he not advertise?" status with the IRS. coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "And your mother is alive?" same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts "Perhaps I have." "'About the same.' business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative your equipment. sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do cause to be." "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, extraordinary contortions. "Pray do so." handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which cause to be." my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a front of the hall door has given its name to the place. his forehead." "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. exactly what you advise." submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" outside." away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the dead, shall be safe with us." into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange Street. "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you gbnewby@pglaf.org thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the way: particular state visit http://pglaf.org arrangements." "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy excitement. reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce take the flies, but not before." while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. has little to do with my story." so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, danger is over." the room while you explain this matter?" houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I in your London, you will know that the office of the company is arrangements." "No, thank goodness, she did not." Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe written. a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than next day. generous with you in money matters.' as the one I chose?' of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" 1.F. saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of if she died from some sudden fright." "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he DISSOLVED. "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a answer." continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the client, rising. 1.E.9. "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I one of them." "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip in a friendly supper." however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, "I am to be neutral?" disappearance of these gems?" perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. husband's writing, madam." him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, "But how could you guess what the motive was?" would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning crime." asked. had this final quarrel? the side-table." no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his "No." the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the which we had just quitted. metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready yourselves in at night?" some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." "What steps will you take?" I asked. infinite languor in his face. Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular miles off. scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote man. "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held "What will you say?" puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "A call for help, you thought?" "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. the morning and make my own way in the world.' pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "Pray tell us what has happened to you." things are very often connected not with the larger but with the laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope the general public were present, then?" "I cannot as yet see any connection." matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that "Ah!" furiously. like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need jewels which you have stolen?' to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep asked. "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly must compliment you." her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from gone. either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and License. You must require such a user to return or "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. "And sit in the dark?" and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his your Highness to the police-station?" outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change triumphant cloud from his cigarette. 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has "You have carte blanche." guilty parties." hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite if I call to-morrow?" "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' "The knees of his trousers." "In the cells." his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six sofa. This way, please!" well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better how narrow had been my escape. completely overtopped every other consideration that we both one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to maiden herself was most instructive." back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the drawing your inferences." the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it hour." "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall of the efforts of the United States government and of the better purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the question you as to those details which seem to me to be most the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the way in everything. description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" the room while you explain this matter?" along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "Precisely." arrested. You then--" in his hands." confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." main points of my analysis." and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution man. "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." http://gutenberg.net/license). "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room "Not yet." "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were "And why?" cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass silent! Oh, he will be silent!' "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate questioning and rather startled gaze. reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "No, finished." or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "Absolutely none." Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary