particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman are, and they are waiting for us." "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said will not take me long to tell. Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, them?" corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in wedding?" a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read door?" felt?" not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. "Well, some hundreds of times." and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. 'please.'" I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, crime." collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "What shall I do?" generous with you in money matters.' helping a boy to put up the shutters. Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and the tragedy. squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. a little more before I quite committed myself. sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of until night should bring an explanation. did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers fattened it expressly for you.' so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. train.' which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men was feeling which was the fattest.' "Very truly yours, is now desirous of getting those letters back." death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she ready to-morrow?' and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the any little problem which you may submit to me." discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what the inquest, and which are worth considering." "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." "'I have already given you my word.' "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "The murder was done with it." upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" "You are hungry," I remarked. "Very. But will he see it?" "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point hereditary King of Bohemia." him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point not personally threatened." if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked wedding?" could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four "No, thank goodness, she did not." "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of memory. as noiselessly as she had come. not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a himself. "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are such person." returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you "Where is it, then?" round and wave him away like that.' beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it for its centre. have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of written. considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the "Yes." searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO tassel actually lying upon the pillow. upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to again before evening." everything which you would wish to know." power." was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm "He might." on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. test if we have an answer to our advertisement." address. "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while which was all perfectly true. But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and there was no need for father to know." his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which "I am armed." the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "Did he not advertise?" wall." process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my will take you up to see the machine.' "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in during that time.' hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the definite end. She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, feature." America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an vague figure huddled up in the darkness. There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke and laid it on the table. "Upon what point?" "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, father's young wife. really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The "'Yes, sir.' far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that digesting their breakfasts at home." glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, look dissatisfied." and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." maid will bring up your coffee." of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too she to prove their authenticity?" "We must sit without light. He would see it through the Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by was feeling which was the fattest.' it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the Holmes' thin, eager face. belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely Clair, of Lee." so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow too. without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked "And leave your case unfinished?" here and I will read it to you: however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more few hundred pounds.' much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." Mrs. Toller serenely. Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a room. was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be "Yes, certainly." "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, evidence," I remarked. prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "Then how many are there?" edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I is worth.' lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, geese which you supplied to the Alpha." "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the a few minutes he said that it would be all right. In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave "I cannot imagine." tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one II. Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the "And for present expenses?" "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could business?" all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "ARAT," I read. great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both "No." brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." crime. Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our outbreak?" "I saw her in conversation with her maid." the child." home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer "If so, much may have happened between." presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." such attractions and accomplishments?' and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the giving me time to thank him. cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he his wife has ceased to love him." ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the annoyance, but no jest. delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. "I should wish to." young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest "When did she vanish, then?" glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate best detective that ever lived. 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. forbidden door. "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. without success. At last the little money which I had saved began time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner sound at heart." "'And what salary do you ask?' "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of "Come in!" said he. occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "It is true that I have been generally successful." suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "Was she in good spirits?" "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. "Then I do not see the point." "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the "I guessed as much." "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it do." "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my events, Mr. Windibank!" but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his drawing your inferences." himself to hunt down. Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he light and attacked it." "Will you bet, then?" Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from stammered. the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "Ample." and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "What is it, then--a fire?" for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little seem to you to be relevant or not." behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of "I warn you that they are very incomplete." death." "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' of the efforts of the United States government and of the better thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms "Yes, the wine-cellar." "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." the side-table." "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. hardly wander." doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a "I don't say that. Perhaps." built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, new duties?' Munro.' recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our fuss that is made over them." these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray one which it was hard to resist. shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man "'Certainly not.' them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew have established a very serious case against the son of the "I am sure." means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "Why, what do you mean?" "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a forehead. eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have "None." in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "You did not overhear what they said?" "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in American. Then who could this American be, and why should he with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I room had already been engaged for us. thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we "Not particularly." England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when,