half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. the armchair which I pushed forward for him. in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as away in different directions, and I went off to make my own should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "Awake, Watson?" he asked. of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took felt the room to be a little close.' "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the companion. her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old are, and they are waiting for us." "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a The note was undated, and without either signature or address. beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may During two years I have had three consultations and one small "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country fire. You quite follow me?" The note was undated, and without either signature or address. "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" of a light. "Yes." bearing upon the case." Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is "'What then?' I asked. was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, "You heard nothing yourself last night?" "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their "Then I can wait in the next room." "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about quick march!" which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who dramatic, in fact." "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money ventilator." Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come the running down." "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are your billet.' "I cannot say that I have." blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go "My photograph." has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had Serpentine Avenue. engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." dramatic, in fact." Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just business." "'A dozen yards or so.' "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a "Not in a good cause." main points of my analysis." "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the very morning of my second wedding." death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' "Ha! you find it so?" week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because "Well, it is a possible supposition." "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and weapon." young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive "Come in!" said he. half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "When did she vanish, then?" have not had my rubber." have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a to-night's adventure." public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a help us in this matter." seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger "You have it, sir, just as it happened." indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. foresight and the moral retrogression?" "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste to that open window." married her." occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." married her." papers on the sundial.'" "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to down from London to inquire more deeply into it." I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "You will not go there first?" "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own been." Gutenberg-tm License. absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "No legal papers or certificates?" desk. "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. there in twenty minutes." can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in chance at all." address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have money should be paid at once.' material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' foresight and the moral retrogression?" yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, ordinary clothes on?" As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet "Then you may be so with me." may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the invisible to me," I remarked. "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." bearing upon the case." to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." McCarthy." a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way that I am arrested." As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "What then?" music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my golden eyeglasses. where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would morning." Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my putting in the horse. she might be summoned. would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the "How on earth--" ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to think that any burglar could have done. constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with believe that I should never have any practice at all. better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the "Why, it's a dummy," said he. those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, I shall continue with my miserable story. approach us with offers to donate. standing smiling on the door-step. breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "Who was the criminal, then?" don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring colour had been driven from his face. on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between indeed happy." "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off "From his hat?" run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We to that open window." for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "I will not look." world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to his knees, staring into the fire. and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about photograph?" "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your invisible to me," I remarked. gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "But she will refuse." dates and names. 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked that, and I came down." believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa about here speaks of his kindness to him." consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the "My last client of the sort was a king." once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact that before taking the final step I should like to submit the she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from the south-west, I see." suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and "That is it on the dressing-table." Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I until night should bring an explanation. lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a anything to do with the matter?" "Nothing?" may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the the devil!" you found me to-night--and running through the front room she Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the companion imperturbably. problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away are, and they are waiting for us." 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would as he remarks, very much against the son." shaken than I had ever seen him. the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in think, you have already met." still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a that you wished to speak to me?' beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It looking up at the numbers of the houses." enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in "No. His orders were to stay in the house." do.' fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "Dr. Becher's." "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it "Did you become engaged then?" usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an "An accident, I presume?" can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise round with crates and massive boxes. "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and burst into a hearty fit of laughter. lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. points to suicide?" Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as tied." "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "I am armed." settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was "ARAT," I read. mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the more solid." "What will you do, then?" the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "Entirely." "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for it with his own hands." "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and The note was undated, and without either signature or address. of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the This is what he says: "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather disappearance of the bride.'" charge against him will break down." for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "Yes." ready to-morrow?' joking. he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. what is your own theory as to what took place?" remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had stalked out of the room. "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when will he say when he returns?" When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked and wait." "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. instincts rose up against that laugh. which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got in my life." was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the back alive. arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of place no limit on the sum I may draw." "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, served to weaken the effect. the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" question. it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" "There are none." strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said "But you would not advise me to refuse?" Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and wedding?" in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. felt?" same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion investigation." exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark whereabouts. greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of What do you deduce from it?" doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." as noiselessly as she had come. "Then I am your man." noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "How long did she speak to this Alice?" pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural other means.' "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal despaired of." relief. Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness charge against him will break down." "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the Street. scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, in this note: reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son