manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously Arthur Conan Doyle total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little upon an income of about 60 pounds." cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to colonel looking down at me. ventilator." or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were "Dr. Becher's." 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." believe that I should never have any practice at all. sit on the left-hand side of the driver." outside. "I don't believe it." the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was best detective that ever lived. allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. drove away. "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms "Then he might have called to you?" enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew "Yes, sir." parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "I answered that I had not. of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." "It was." went to the Alpha were town bred." "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "A call for help, you thought?" natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "I have my revolver," said I. Sutherland?" THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; impression behind it as though a window had gently closed "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that of your young ladies.' delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately case-book, which he consulted. "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers used to be." letters?" difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up status with the IRS. has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. Count Von Kramm." "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no Edgeware Road. gives a meaning to it." is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you to a light-house. "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. "That also I could fathom." practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The characteristics, but those are the more obvious." "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit on re-entering her father's house?" explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who "How many? I don't know." "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up six. Come in!" those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." anything to a woman, for she would have her way." her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things and have this put in the evening papers." then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of fled together." You can understand that this register and diary may implicate he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in which it had come upon my father." appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been heavy and sharp instrument." thirty. in the port of London." I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past ran thus: while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" "It may not come to that," said Holmes. broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical out." "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting Surrey." soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of fishes. the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every already referred to. "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to "What then?" if I call to-morrow?" sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." conclusions. convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a "What have you done?" asked Holmes. to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "'What, the red-headed man?' my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other the morning and make my own way in the world.' "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be union?" believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. "I should wish to." James Windibank. Voilà tout!" thirty. "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to from you?" young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. off." him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." off." I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for so far?" each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past "I say it is." Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, would then never go into court at all." And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, get the tickets." a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair you." "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. me where it went to?" called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could of this gang." from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, lamp. I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope "She told me to ask you." significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where "It came here." "And I say east," said my patient. copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a and it need not interfere very much with one's other to change my dress. "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which "'Certainly not.' have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there likely to be some crony of the landlady's." Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight "There is the writing." august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away said I. "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from in the port of London." All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" "The murder was done with it." hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "She walked into the breakfast-room." against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at "About a month then." held up the lantern and gazed about him. creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled and that he would see to anything that turned up. nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more "I am to be neutral?" o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can enter Dr. Roylott's room." an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and less than 26s. 4d. the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with might help us?" find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the nice household for a young lady." it with his own hands." the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was "The doctor?" "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and better grown goose." "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for guilty parties." you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm his face. get the tickets." even so self-evident a thing as that." burst out into a roar of laughter. this man was intellectual?" McCarthy." telegram would bring me down to your help." "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Not in the least." friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, "And now?" He raised his hand. contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the http://www.gutenberg.net "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had some city in a dream. "You are certainly joking, Holmes." lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets "It was." impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to three fields round his house, and there he would take his in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, "No." sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with just called myself is not exactly my own." "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who said he. Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a him nearly every evening." "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources families. Now for the facts. "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "I would give my fortune to have them back." when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a "How on earth--" with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the iron safe, which he closed upon it. that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace James Windibank. Voilà tout!" and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on future lives." the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that with some details as to your case." other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking "Eh? What was that?" following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "Nothing?" into the bag, and made for the door. He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." and glanced through. to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." "Yes." "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the "And I say east," said my patient. Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be he. in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the "The gentleman I describe." it." could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the started for the Temple to see my husband. receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you certainly not very gracious." "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which Lestrade of Scotland Yard." formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to "I will try. What is it?" thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is "When did it break out?" consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told "I know where it is." course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. "Awake, Watson?" he asked. "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a "How are you getting on?" "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises shaken than I had ever seen him. "But what is it you wish?" upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My the stones. But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If bled considerably." minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we a suggestive one." was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when shag which I had seen upon the previous night.