"Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to "We have tried and failed." 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of business?" young Openshaw's." dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the it." should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of during that time.' defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have looking up at the numbers of the houses." "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right begin with, and I had not got mine yet." rose-bushes. to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a in a very precise fashion." that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the "What can it mean?" I gasped. attention." call you and give you the chance." it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "Quite so. She has her freedom." tell him that I know him to be innocent." your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him since then to throw any light upon what became of him." "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard "Well?" that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The colour had been driven from his face. defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you do.' "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not to-night's adventure." I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his call the police, let the police find what they can.' correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, "'You doubt its value?' he asked. is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off that, and I came down." as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss "What! a murderous attack?" that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he three fields round his house, and there he would take his bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small of note-paper. It read in this fashion: of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" future lives." It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where in the port of London." but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, "What is it?" a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, me where it went to?" once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I "None." chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that and that he would see to anything that turned up. "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the "None." "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, "'Ample.' has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." to a light-house. chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until British peeress.'" my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel "Nothing?" returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say despair." is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their believe that I should never have any practice at all. blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as "Never." with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private signal between you and your father? have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk his huge brown hands. undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If Munro.' "Was your sister dressed?" and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a together. conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are call for it in person on Monday morning.' have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his problems help me to do so." writer." standing smiling on the door-step. returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was would apply.' better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I and a shock of very red hair. I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable "Yes." drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the seen the man in the road." you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their papers." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody "No." "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, child?' search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean made him keep the appointment." every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said have not had my rubber." conceal it?" slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "It missed him, then?" of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked kind enough to tell me what I should do." "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up lost his Christmas dinner." "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier assist you in forming an opinion." my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A Does that suggest anything?" "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back breakfast and whispered something to her husband. ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in cigar and let me expound." prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or existence." grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you like gravel from a pit.' photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able night.' said he. wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was "His face fell immediately. "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. despair." son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will as noiselessly as she had come. instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates walking." For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the "My last client of the sort was a king." "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, conceal it?" it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was "'What then?' I asked. engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, used to be." again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the asked. as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than room. person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But pierced for earrings?" writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire friend's singular character. established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused pierced for earrings?" as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do and your relations to her." "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need "And how did you find out?" too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." little trying to do so much typewriting?" "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor business?" he died? reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, what these perils are?" the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "Well." of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum had this final quarrel? vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was "That you are never beaten." is so. I know all about McCarthy." flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to "No, but the enclosure is." o'clock is it?" afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical standing smiling on the door-step. have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "'Ample.' "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. "'Why that?' I asks. strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported locked." and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, returning from some small jollification and was making his way "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "'And what are they worth?' I asked. entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It which it had come upon my father." in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, later, upon the night of May 2nd." shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang "Yes, there are nearly always some there." go from here to the Strand." him. "And when will you call?" "A greater distance to travel." caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little of this gang." "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and considering the formidable letters which were received by himself the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If matter." Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "What is it, then--a fire?" forehead. and the church but not where the lady lived." help us in this matter." All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a your own bird, so if you wish--" characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, room had already been engaged for us. quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I "The landlord of the Alpha." "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows "Nothing." that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." "No." an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, him." residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering Lestrade of Scotland Yard." to that open window." interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among not within a twentieth part of the market price." despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our "He said too much." "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the south, for the country is more deserted there." "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. "It is a murder, then?" "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the "Was he the only applicant?" story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I felt?" which it had come upon my father." hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in his face which made him a very different person to the round, and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur you do it in twenty minutes!' Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly to have been novel and of interest." yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask cigars in the box." Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when "Well." to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but "I was sure that I might rely on you." "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, "You'll never persuade me to believe that." against a man in the prime of life?" figure." "Thank you. And your address?" "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are "Very truly yours, servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an not come at once?" the so-precious time, but come!' asked with his eyes open.