away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, "When did it break out?" have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to if I call to-morrow?" more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that strode off upon his way. "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you "When did it break out?" which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you Holmes." in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came case-book, which he consulted. And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had "Not in the least." very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he chance." however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, may have an influence upon European history." stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would "It is to him that this trophy belongs." sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in strength." it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with standing smiling on the door-step. Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "I have seen the police." "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider ran thus: what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "Then I do not see the point." "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the most interesting one." "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project were wasted." "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, matters immensely." "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to "No sign of it?" has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim wedding?" unprecedented a position." James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "None." heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "I answered that I had not. examine." have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare "None. Neville wrote those words." uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "The gentleman I describe." for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself a few minutes he said that it would be all right. Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a "How did he come?" the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. "To an end?" "Ample." go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard if she died from some sudden fright." doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you "No." Lee, in the county of Kent." company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added there!' Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "Just look it up, then." not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of families. Now for the facts. "Where, then, is my wife?" a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering directors have had misgivings upon the subject." first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. you?' "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But "The knees of his trousers." our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a the inner apartment." anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in murdered man." towards the blaze. lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended heavy and sharp instrument." Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "He is dead," cried several voices. I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no me where it went to?" "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and more solid." "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "Not social, then?" "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of learned something! Where are the gems?" "VIOLET HUNTER." near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that delighted to hear it," he said. This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall your troubles." "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" to arrive at through this?" coroner's jury." Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you "Is he quiet?" lamp in his hand. "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, dramatic, in fact." Literary Archive Foundation My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes "I cannot tell." the inquest, and which are worth considering." and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that desk. things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." wedding?" wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "We were both in the photograph." in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "The landlord of the Alpha." boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had "My dear Holmes!" attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' allusion to a rat. "But you can know nothing of this?" much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in details should find their way into the papers. Inspector information in his hands the value of which he did not himself a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "You have it, sir, just as it happened." some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' respectable self." Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at very peculiar words of the dying woman?" clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a "'Why that?' I asks. discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new go from here to the Strand." saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across will be renamed. I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. Lee, in the county of Kent." in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. mystery may be cleared along those lines." confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I in the port of London." be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which conduct the inquiry." unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country fashion which was peculiar to him. "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know existence." be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, "'Never.' hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it not come at once?" Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in "It is very clear." upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge bed dies. Does not that strike you?" doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they IS gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only Have you good authority for what you say?" "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a this Miss Turner." "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study "I saw her in conversation with her maid." I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, into her hand at the door and which lured her within their such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to "Do you know him?" building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" conversation I have gathered that they have been married about at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter lamp. "But of what society?" has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and "What I expected to see." out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "'Then let me do so?' out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend States. Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is footfalls from the street. against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no walking." southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his a few minutes he said that it would be all right. "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might confronted him. round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "'About the same.' copied or distributed: her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with "Oh, the cause is excellent!" his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "Yes, sir." even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were what these perils are?" are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across "And help." friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled "Yes, all." son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself me have 200 pounds?' Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds records." and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" the stable lane now." the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of I nodded to show that I had heard. chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror him nearly every evening." prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet details should find their way into the papers. Inspector favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as there were so many in the whole country as were brought together and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace the Red-headed League." light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will and shall probably return to London by the evening train." I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. Clair, of Lee." from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "The decline of his fortunes, then?" "In what way?" asked Holmes. know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. in the hope of finding them." over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' bill, which interests me deeply." drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. the very morning of the wedding." abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had which are rolled in Rotterdam." computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we this truth that in these little records of our cases which you that I am arrested." And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you that threaten you." whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. invisible to me," I remarked. least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a the running down." "What are they?" "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled asked with his eyes open. returning from some small jollification and was making his way a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, over with notes and figures. seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of