but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a then?" my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat ill-usage at the hands of fortune. impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would it. should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a The King stared at him in amazement. counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get key turn in the lock." woven round him. suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The grasp, he hurried from the room. me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church "My private note-paper." "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am these bleak autumnal evenings." "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are disappearance of the bride.'" the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I simple cases which are so extremely difficult." chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of present strange and interesting features that it is no easy separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to in this way: "I should like to see him very much." details should find their way into the papers. Inspector is entirely a question of barometric pressure." Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the little adventures." he. hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just just ask you whether you had heard it.' useful material for showing traces. The double line a little Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very the coronet in his hands?" usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." clang of the bell. Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless "But the mystery?" age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless forebodings. possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that The events in question occurred in the early days of my dear old homesteads?" "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "Was there a secret marriage?" it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out said I. with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his neither fascinating nor artistic." seven miles from Eyford Station.' "Awake, Watson?" he asked. and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are sound at heart." and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "I am still in the dark." "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. advice." started for the Temple to see my husband. way: gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who "By no means." such attractions and accomplishments?' "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her to take care of herself." congenial hunt. "What have you to say now?" Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your arrangements." overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty some place of shelter and let the county police know what has this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an "The doctor?" the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and you in your example." For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me Clair, of Lee." the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, new duties?' fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which bird I ate is country bred." between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had in a very precise fashion." "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in characteristics, but those are the more obvious." "I should like to see him very much." without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, records." "But of what society?" man. find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "We were both in the photograph." building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you "The decline of his fortunes, then?" 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm "Holmes, the busybody!" in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry "No, I think that I'll take it." entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for out." in his power. deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. "'Certainly,' I answered. still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare that he will be back before evening." the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "It is no ordinary one." on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece weigh very heavily upon my conscience." on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "But I am all in the dark." others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' "Then, as to money?" At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to "9th. McCauley cleared. "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but of this gang." own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." coat-tails." Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you outbreak?" "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little was keenly on my guard against him. gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, "Yes." "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It "Why? What do you mean?" red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "And I say east," said my patient. the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second fish-monger and a tide-waiter." locked. so.' tear off another piece?' in this note: up this clue while it is still hot." or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled "And help." cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "Not social, then?" yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these brain must have something in it." put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very "And how have you succeeded?" "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears "By train from Waterloo." matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between you?' to where he stood hid behind the curtain. advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was most important business. It is probable that he will be away all rooms." the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very and glanced through. "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's in this way: their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" fluttered off among the others. either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small undoubtedly my uncle's." "Entirely." present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat where we are going." have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, could not account in any way for the presence of the missing any little problem which you may submit to me." was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he "What are they?" article?" "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, made him keep the appointment." I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he chair. the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "Do you receive much company?" he asked. true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "'How far from the body?' brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress me, and I could not think that his explanation of the grasp, he hurried from the room. nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, a good hundred miles off by now." married her." the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "Yes." it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had and it need not interfere very much with one's other companion. had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of keep the flames under. society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, her also." he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in them, and came down just as you departed. my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "Certainly." double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. "An accident, I presume?" you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of of the one which your family is now devouring." the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are away into the river." was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good have an American origin." in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it voice, changing her seat as requested. Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some enter Dr. Roylott's room." expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its "Certainly." allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself have had none more fantastic than this." Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a "They are typewritten," I remarked. stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the one which it was hard to resist. The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate "It was a confession," I ejaculated. passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible the coronet in his hand?" game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, said I. the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of she slowly sank and died without having recovered her "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life appeared upon the scene." had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is had died away into the silence from which it rose. been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him "She told me to ask you." governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "Never to return." "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing