conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" "Entirely." I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive not within a twentieth part of the market price." "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. "It must be recovered." He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned of his shoulders. mystery!" my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a disappearance of these gems?" child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and husband's writing, madam." "That is not always so easy." brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did writer." prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone acquaintance?" glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own over part of the map. "What do you read?" I nodded again. "A confidential servant?" to a more successful conclusion." that?' believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the "Seven!" I answered. were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has "Witness: It was. My friend smiled. ready to-morrow?' George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the seven miles from Eyford Station.' come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as to tell." into the bag, and made for the door. wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to hereditary King of Bohemia." "I would pay ten." friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "Always." until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My in the hope of finding them." salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so him!" minor matters until to-morrow." "The landlord of the Alpha." active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of them?" month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot enter into my head. Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered more terrible than the truth. connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the "I will not look." "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George husband's writing, madam." to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "Yes, certainly." gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You "'Certainly,' I answered. since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' recover the gem." permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you back alive. opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is skylight. disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her he bowed and left the room without another word. all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he "I have hopes." whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask mysterious business." "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey digesting their breakfasts at home." extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the fish-monger and a tide-waiter." with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that security.' my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "What of the rat, then?" call it cruel." fashion which was peculiar to him. the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being good-night and bustled off upon her way. One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp union?" money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it "From his hat?" into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has over here." master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the train.' *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the "Did you become engaged then?" "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my brandy and water within his reach. greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all the Friday. Was it to be in church?" "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two "To the police?" II. Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up "Frequently." crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, up this clue while it is still hot." "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), him to be an active member of the medical profession." on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your some mystery and the punishment of some crime." "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young you came in." "'Most admirably.' more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed What do you deduce from it?" the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow point in the dark hollow of his hand. accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the always that they were such commands as a lady might with "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had that I can to serve you." "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a my special province." from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar think that he is innocent?" souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, and the colonel ushered me in. morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that pierced for earrings?" deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of said he at last. "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his "I was afraid that you were engaged." "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. "And what then?" the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from my former friend and companion. "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" indeed which he could not unravel. her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, bled considerably." hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "Absolutely none." "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my spare." had no one to advise her at such a crisis." with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." McCarthy's innocence. occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much which we had just quitted. visitors." digesting their breakfasts at home." though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a "That was it, sir." house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was developed." way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "My last client of the sort was a king." upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose peculiar to him. hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a directors, with the result that you have seen." "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the useful material for showing traces. The double line a little "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. from you?" written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought "Oh, fresh and glossy." emerged. fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear as noiselessly as she had come. 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently business came to an end." pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, electronic works her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." your co-operation." and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, indeed which he could not unravel. imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up brandy and water within his reach. matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even "Stolen." a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had "How long did she speak to this Alice?" a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, affection." from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond chill to my heart. the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. get her out of the way." "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided putting in the horse. aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "It is his hat." even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "And how in the world did you find them?" half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always approach us with offers to donate. Miss Holder?" array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took power." certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under which we had just quitted. out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and "No. His orders were to stay in the house." "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a "Pray do so." We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we relation between them, and what the object of his repeated on in his house." Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been written. out." "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' "It is possible." chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. breakfast." "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a of your young ladies.' introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, During two years I have had three consultations and one small present." were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "Will you go?" the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped here." all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little kind enough to tell me what I should do." "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by ventilator." Again Holmes raved in the air. unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he "What will you do, then?" on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open and a shock of very red hair. "The Coroner: What do you mean? of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies daring than any effort of the imagination." "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a not fit the lock." "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The open." "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've sparkled upon his finger. possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I highroad, where all traces were lost. master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the