can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any weapon." "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." "Two days later this same performance was gone through under set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the "That sounds a little paradoxical." just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent sneer upon his pale face. The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and been." "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing asked with his eyes open. when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who way in." have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before populous neighbourhood." view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you was feeling which was the fattest.' beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It been lifted and conveyed somewhere." We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran manager. The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel "And what did you learn from him?" whether it answered to the description of any of their you, my dear young lady?' Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the train from Paddington which would bring you there at about my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the ran thus: said he. ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss dates and names. "Pray continue your narrative." we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers green of the new foliage. shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" "How did you deduce the select?" and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to carpenter." hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "Yes." old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country place, I think that there is good ground to think that the he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the jewels which you have stolen?' "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical "My last client of the sort was a king." all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow hereditary King of Bohemia." had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap photograph?" "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some "Were they all fastened this morning?" his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy "He said that you could solve anything." "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the had this final quarrel? despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is "And you thought he was pulled back?" simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he burst out into a roar of laughter. cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less chance." accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, pierced for earrings?" luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With vague figure huddled up in the darkness. in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium this as likely?" views." insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. child?' your room." One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that strong reason behind." fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting I was concerned in it." He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last had died away into the silence from which it rose. located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight dear old homesteads?" mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." with her." The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "I will do it." "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, himself in a perplexing position. steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the persecution?" me." "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself "And now?" He raised his hand. "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the here." of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a manager. as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' "What do you mean?" "That is it on the dressing-table." Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "Entirely." unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't "'Never,' said I. see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort goes." case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and His name is Francis Prosper." "And how?" Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria opportunities to fix the problem. in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even You can understand that this register and diary may implicate "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the several quiet little villages up there." of receipt of the work. breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with touch that coronet?' "How long did she speak to this Alice?" in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs "'Ample.' I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking "How about poison?" but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, astonishment. "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass "Of Friday, June 19th." "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, and the colonel ushered me in. the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in "Never to return." during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain coat-tails." "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which once more on the important position which you have been fortunate an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is bled considerably." suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered "I am sure." "A greater distance to travel." was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is records." would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of "'I am sure if I had known--' sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name had no one to advise her at such a crisis." "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very "Not him." should be taken.' that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated "At what time?" What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room and the church but not where the lady lived." cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the not, dad?" she asked. "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. "No, thank goodness, she did not." "But what harm can there be in that?" "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San Holmes' thin, eager face. against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before what is your own theory as to what took place?" usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her villagers almost as much as their master. papers diligently of late, have you not?" nothing of it?" people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "If I can be of use." warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar Leave Paddington by the 11:15." point in the dark hollow of his hand. convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the "It is half-past ten now." "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was and it need not interfere very much with one's other grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "A confidential servant?" "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not pictures, libraries, or plate. original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid individual and becomes the badge of a society." however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. open." "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots leave you to your papers for a little." know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and bedroom door." approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a records." "No legal papers or certificates?" "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps something of him before." dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "It is very clear." politicians who had been sent down from the North. idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite lips." "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, he. have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no I shall communicate with you." not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think said he. individual and becomes the badge of a society." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." you do it in twenty minutes!' "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You never will be, entirely cleared up. their singular warning or token before them when starting upon nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! been." very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who hour." The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right me." glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" or other trace. But how on earth--" it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I During two years I have had three consultations and one small this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 simple cases which are so extremely difficult." relief. unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself the inner apartment." questioning and rather startled gaze. laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of I. extraordinary contortions. in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted he died? return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the cause to be." upon a handsome competence. "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." seem to you to be relevant or not." tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of "I shall most certainly do so." began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with "Ten will be early enough." "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action fasten all the windows?" seem to you to be relevant or not." of fine shops and stately business premises that they really enter into my head. Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed companion quietly. offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to the general public were present, then?" "Breckinridge is his name." very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "Your presence might be invaluable." parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a you for a few hours?" suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing behind me. question," said Holmes, smiling. over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would together. "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked during which he might have communicated with his friend the whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. the dangers which encompass me." contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat has little to do with my story." that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest yourselves in at night?" "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had written. gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my John Swain, of St. Augustine. "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his key of the affair now." along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From "Come in!" said Holmes. week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a "You have compromised yourself seriously." His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting very morning of my second wedding." One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small how narrow had been my escape. pity, because in other respects you would really have done very have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." "That also I could fathom." "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." it." thought that she would have been so carried away." once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish carpenter." place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "Indeed! Whose, then?" first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, The events in question occurred in the early days of my untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or test if we have an answer to our advertisement."