labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen characteristics, but those are the more obvious." anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." been anything against him. He had for years been known as a value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "Dark enough and sinister enough." beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an which I could not give. He asked for Alice. "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, which should have the effect of calling the attention of the carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he the room while you explain this matter?" cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is the south-west, I see." However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in will find little credit to be gained out of this case." http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, success. unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course IS "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an that he has suffered." "He slept on the premises." "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. nonsense.' he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended business." Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two the nursery. building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely humiliation." whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and "'Which dealer's?' to miss it." As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "I should like to see him very much." fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done "In the cells." room?" This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill "What then?" my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was his cane at the bell-pull. "How on earth--" him!" moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not "I don't say that. Perhaps." Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do Holmes' thin, eager face. "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from singular points about the case. What did the police think of the rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in made his money." I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well Farm upon the left." the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the ventilator." keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "Certainly." photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering Where does the thing come from?' the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. "We were both in the photograph." yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "A thing like a cleaver," said he. are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to "You are hungry," I remarked. Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" and no precautions can guard against." if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your chance at all." more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The "Yes, they were peculiar boots." o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was your sleep?' way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too from the brougham. "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "Have you it here?" "On the contrary, this is the right side." "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue "My photograph." so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "In what way?" asked Holmes. passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the Pool. "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector begun to whiten, even as mine has." just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very distance from the station, and there we found the young lady fish-monger and a tide-waiter." over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change papers diligently of late, have you not?" permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations "You will not go there first?" see a sister of mine apply for." these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks anything to do with the matter?" that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has with you alone." introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." "What, then?" think that he is innocent?" ill-usage at the hands of fortune. return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's as this. Pray let me have the details." you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have "You horrify me." point in the dark hollow of his hand. recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed "He said too much." returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a had this final quarrel? in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate fatally injured? still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our "Then I can wait in the next room." "No, finished." I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in on re-entering her father's house?" sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly The events in question occurred in the early days of my that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the address. fled together." and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as I. set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as forbidden door. "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man matter." arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far means taking possession of that which another person has a prior for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy to-night." It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late directly by questioning you." after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic "This photograph!" should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, lost nothing by them." "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "It is solved." "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that all that?" "'And what are they worth?' I asked. dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously the inquest, and which are worth considering." finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the whatever might befall. "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be awkward doing business with an alias." Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The system of imprisonment?" family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or "It is his hat." crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear "Which are?" the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has "And sit in the dark?" firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California occurred." the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there their singular warning or token before them when starting upon "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and note?" bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet never will be, entirely cleared up. logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very in his hands." this as likely?" the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by "She showed me, as I told you she would." someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, "Which are?" "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was that before taking the final step I should like to submit the You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to "Stolen, then." the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in imbecility!" he cried. "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten thirty. I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in "I cannot as yet see any connection." son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful emerged. the warnings." meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink writer." cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "I came to find a friend." not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would of it with the greatest attention. left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently always that they were such commands as a lady might with face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I yards of it?' "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. certainly not very gracious." likely to be some crony of the landlady's." am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in ordinary clothes on?" more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." pictures, libraries, or plate. people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it "No?" "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, ways of our fellow-men." grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the round and wave him away like that.' "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, closely." It was close upon four before the door opened, and a small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while instituted." wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "'Tell me all about it,' said I. "The rest you will leave in our hands." "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down giving me time to thank him. behind me. among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from "May I see it?" silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "'You cannot say what it was?' having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting as yours." along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "'I have heard so.' Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" him to be an active member of the medical profession." certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love strength in the others." that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been one which it was hard to resist. for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "Then you may be so with me." to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime cigars in the box." Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The "Nothing." distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "Ample." "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his excitement. "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "What are they?" quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head directors have had misgivings upon the subject." help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black Street. greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in Surrey." glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect back to my heart. upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed events than those which have happened in my own family." compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, "'As governess?' turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "It was a confession," I ejaculated. "Yes." "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, spark where all is dark to me." collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my "Absolutely?" "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said despair." St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist perplexity from it to my illustrious client. was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he "Nothing?" of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "Yes." weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked humiliation." withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. father's young wife. possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still "Your French gold?" were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you