outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to see me here to avoid scandal." when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' may never be exposed to such a temptation." "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, "Certainly." a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire singular points about the case. What did the police think of the expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The horse could go." of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he out of this horrible affair." light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on "And what did you learn from him?" even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, of this gang." stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We maiden herself was most instructive." stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He "Proceed, then." "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you the very morning of the wedding." unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her lamp. kind enough to tell me what I should do." thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all signal between you and your father? way: lids now and glanced across at his visitor. in. "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was minor matters until to-morrow." appeared upon the scene." considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an "That is it on the dressing-table." on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. drove away. the address that was given us in the advertisement. sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried room had already been engaged for us. my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when confronted him. that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his "I assure you that I am in your hands." "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door "The landlord of the Alpha." was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old "Nor running a chance of arrest?" "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these and wait." waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be back to my heart. commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" on re-entering her father's house?" human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "Yes." Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his "A call for help, you thought?" "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. developed." the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his goes." His name is Francis Prosper." You can understand that this register and diary may implicate the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any and looked back. "Yes, all." Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was man. the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same You can understand that this register and diary may implicate about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his it right.' I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "But we can't all be." "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a "I will, Miss Turner." once more. to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, the dangers which encompass me." Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates upon an income of about 60 pounds." the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to fear." points in connection with it which never have been, and probably My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a excitement. Where does the thing come from?' were wasted." narrative." of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, a few minutes he said that it would be all right. it were putty." sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. "Where to?" that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled cost them two and thirty pounds." array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell if I call to-morrow?" broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly clang of the bell. in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "I have come for advice." utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this his fortune, and I went back to pa. train from Paddington which would bring you there at about and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "To an end?" "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I It may be so in this case, also." "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer peculiar to him. instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was "Has he come with you to-night?" see a sister of mine apply for." Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more "'Ample.' McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "Not I." secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very skylight. from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "Then the page we have seen--" down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is one of the states of the Union." maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the reach." and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had said I. "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "It came here." whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had "Married! When?" make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. redistribution. you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "What can it mean?" I gasped. which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this singular points about the case. What did the police think of the that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed "Well, but China?" labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man country, and eventually married, without anyone having a "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and cause to be." room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "But you can know nothing of this?" never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to and the church but not where the lady lived." what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken hair?' could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this room?" with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That name is different." Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his row." in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here neither fascinating nor artistic." opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great to you." Street. "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. "In heaven's name, what for?" "'Is purely nominal.' which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right "Her father is very rich?" what I may call a really hard day's work." that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "None." is now desirous of getting those letters back." Mary, has deserted me." his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and himself to hunt down. and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in "Holmes, the busybody!" I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in "But we can't all be." little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy "But not more so than I to find you." "I came to find a friend." attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. main points of my analysis." idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had are windows in it, of course?" both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera "Has he come with you to-night?" "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I Doctor, of the paper and the date." "I am about to be married." "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that into the room. asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of "What!" he roared. folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a congenial hunt. Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon would apply.' this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, me upon any point which I do not make clear." Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite gone. "I don't believe it." burst out into a roar of laughter. copied or distributed: completely overtopped every other consideration that we both minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the "What?" say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "Yesterday." Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little asked. "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into anything to do with the matter?" her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to child?' "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come lips." vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining depend upon your compliance." the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." cigar and let me expound." which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither compunction about shooting them down." The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at indeed happy." Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me You can understand that this register and diary may implicate "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged call for it in person on Monday morning.' dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are "Very well, sir. And this stone?" "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" guilty parties." been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, room. rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my never will be, entirely cleared up. Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "Ample." course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for next day. "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him against a man in the prime of life?" they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. "No." "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "Yes, that is the Crown." outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church