Again Holmes raved in the air. McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in learned something! Where are the gems?" had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you thin, with a long, sharp nose?" and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready kind enough to tell me what I should do." least a most suspicious remark." begin with, and I had not got mine yet." Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we the very letters. But what is this written above them?' princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by questionable one." gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest fled together." it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "I say that I have solved it." confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom door?" I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in the devil!" "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who soul! here is her carriage at the door." upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "I never have." "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" if she died from some sudden fright." "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." had formerly been in part my own. there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become there!' "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing "Get out!" said he. Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "But you would not advise me to refuse?" again." police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner "Yes, sir." It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth "Dr. Becher's." humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second eavesdroppers?' conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary system of imprisonment?" "'What would be the hours?' I asked. new acquaintance to Baker Street. impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the presented which may be striking and bizarre without being "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I purpose equally well?" go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre matters immensely." the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his noise which awoke you from your sleep?" he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it "He said that you could solve anything." You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his "Dr. Becher's." London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a II. "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your round with crates and massive boxes. such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of "Come in!" said Holmes. in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the question. course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the photograph a cabinet?" hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "'Ten to two.' and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the asked with his eyes open. Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been them present such singular features as the strange train of in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "About a month then." screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "To an English lawyer named Norton." "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You "Yes." knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. strong reason behind." ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." ordinary clothes on?" have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. weary and pale-looking. "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." together. "'Yes, sir.' greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, secret." provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been served to weaken the effect. telegram would bring me down to your help." it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. call you and give you the chance." comes from the middle window." was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of it were putty." see me here to avoid scandal." "In San Francisco, a year ago." and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, rooms." the date of his supposed suicide." sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, note?" assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you the coronet in his hand?" the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What plantation.' have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set the address that was given us in the advertisement. supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to said he. her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might must be when I saw the door open.' whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "In the cells." upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp to you." English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical are windows in it, of course?" them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic that there was nothing in it, after all." you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had intimate personal affairs in this public manner." "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of singular points about the case. What did the police think of the There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but take the flies, but not before." address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by "Then you may be so with me." lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold 1.E.9. that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "It was an hour's good drive." sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The "'Certainly not.' "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, several quiet little villages up there." some city in a dream. eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out of the one which your family is now devouring." a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be think you a quite exceptional woman." snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see must compliment you." quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the brain must have something in it." Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy Leave Paddington by the 11:15." Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and looking up at the numbers of the houses." aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." I think that I could be of assistance to you." "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's "Never." metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, brandy and water within his reach. One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that "Absolutely none." he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the Holmes' thin, eager face. bell. Holmes whistled. International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "No sign of it?" "None." you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' door?" "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "Not social, then?" The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy province." The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were helping a boy to put up the shutters. knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' had picked up in the wood. "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that Mrs. Toller serenely. window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I said he. his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had overpowering excitement and concern. the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by unprecedented a position." the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to during which he might have communicated with his friend the "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. recover the gem." "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival envelope. "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." ourselves in the office." man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm dates and names. the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag ill-usage at the hands of fortune. There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has "What have you done?" asked Holmes. husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "I am in hopes that she does." He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that entirely lost his self-respect." "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear "'I have heard so.' surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our "I know where it is." whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the never to learn it at all." one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to "Nor running a chance of arrest?" Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving was a loud and authoritative tap. carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done Cross for the Continent." "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "Very much so." this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, "The gentleman I describe." blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do go from here to the Strand." "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you think, you have already met." back into the street. fashion which was peculiar to him. have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. "What is it, then--a fire?" better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Of Friday, June 19th." the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our "It missed him, then?" "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have "No, I am descending." "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, during the last few years, and there are many noble families to Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal your bag." a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction John Swain, of St. Augustine. he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the remarked. Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "'I shall certainly be there.' station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a the side-table." borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face "But what will you do?" DISSOLVED. at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it dramatic, in fact." exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months door?" "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months never came back." "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of and the whole place is in a blaze." doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: your only hope of safety." from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy at my remark. There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until "Because he was handy and would come cheap." possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can "'Is 4 pounds a week.' envelope. prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came think that any burglar could have done. present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it Lee, in the county of Kent." "And on what day did he meet his death?" being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from recover the gem." at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully salesman. and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading