Loading chat...

where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To to his chemical studies. Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend You can understand that this register and diary may implicate tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil without a word or a look. "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the fled together." the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who "'What do you call purely nominal?' I shall communicate with you." a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful "I am sure." "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone carried out of court." was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in "'Entirely.' doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." "Have you it here?" Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is Pope's Court, Fleet Street." Street. "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some his forehead." betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was unclasping of his long thin hands. "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "In answer to an advertisement." "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my think you a quite exceptional woman." shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." appointment with me for six o'clock?" "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant case-book, which he consulted. the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which people don't know." "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to "Yes." comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." hand, madam?" "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of "What are they?" a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On "Pray do so." "She walked into the breakfast-room." if she died from some sudden fright." "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was interest. They are important, you understand, without being in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I habit of advancing money.' lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This as this. Pray let me have the details." of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been do." http://www.gutenberg.net and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman answer." "Pray tell us what has happened to you." "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he his face which made him a very different person to the round, honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged could not have written that. It is the German who is so "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. that I am arrested." how narrow had been my escape. "I will do it." married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their to Leatherhead. must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid bore every mark of being an average commonplace British "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its returning from some small jollification and was making his way Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few neither fascinating nor artistic." "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "But the mystery?" just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point that I am arrested." points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." prove to be little relation between the different incidents of Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it train from Paddington which would bring you there at about premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a "And is that all?" be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by dates and names. located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid "And leave your case unfinished?" the so-precious time, but come!' "Perhaps we may make them less so." then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." whatever might befall. George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "'Then let me do so?' have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "Yes, at the mines." used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line "What I expected to see." pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "'Certainly not.' "Very murderous indeed." "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, that knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and yards of it?' "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." "Come in!" said he. "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks "The landlord of the Alpha." subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the to-morrow." "No." entirely devoid of interest." asked with his eyes open. seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond once more for Briony Lodge. his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any upon the sideboard." pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and "In what way?" asked Holmes. "'Oh, no.' resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. round and wave him away like that.' While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off Literary Archive Foundation "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working photograph?" Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must handed it to him. again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he "I should be immensely obliged to you." loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" me." we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. mysterious end." "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She You can understand that this register and diary may implicate As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which you, my dear young lady?' It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was "By all means." "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" it right.' stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. few hundred pounds.' Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when children over to America with him, so that I found myself without week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit to where he stood hid behind the curtain. making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is your billet.' centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the "Bought." "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' been with you?" of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for But Holmes shook his head gravely. "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing his wife has ceased to love him." old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point matter over." recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to "I see many objections to any such theory." nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love For additional contact information: "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "Certainly." grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the signal between you and your father? reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal details." "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine during which he might have communicated with his friend the position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "No, distinctly professional." tied." upon a handsome competence. astonishment. followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the your sleep?' WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. anything to do with the matter?" "Thank you. Pray proceed." have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days that I am arrested." answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce carried out of court." Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side hurried away. entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all the room while you explain this matter?" Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet that there was nothing in it, after all." unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see of them has the shutters up.' which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the "And Irene Adler?" morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "What of the rat, then?" My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the affair. business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend James Windibank. Voilà tout!" With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "It is half-past ten now." companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without "But his left-handedness." I approached. Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "Certainly, madam." unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which forehead. jewels which you have stolen?' understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more "Certainly." "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For the nursery. complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. your co-operation." Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would "But what harm can there be in that?" "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, humiliation." electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would ready to-morrow?' "I will get her to show me." "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "Eh? What was that?" this unhappy family?" The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "I would pay ten." of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand some city in a dream. hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers tied." convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced "Why did you beat the pavement?" vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the attention." "Where, then?" of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were "Not in a good cause." views." Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, of your young ladies.' darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other "Yes, sir." "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the gives a meaning to it." "Why, what do you mean?" "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that closely." felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his Farm upon the left." "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be Holmes' face clouded over. actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been