money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him here and I will read it to you: empty. "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection "You heard nothing yourself last night?" "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" arms and began to sob in a high treble key. When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For over his head with a sweet womanly caress. Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who completely overtopped every other consideration that we both but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have that he will be back before evening." thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men dear old homesteads?" starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for the station." you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, written. considering the formidable letters which were received by himself "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." bed dies. Does not that strike you?" confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently new duties?' nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "Certainly." you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong even so self-evident a thing as that." our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "Then you may be so with me." "Nothing." his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you "'And the work?' "Where, then, is my wife?" to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would writers could invent nothing more crude." in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm "I cannot say that I have." have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition "He might." of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, foresight and the moral retrogression?" "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a fear." fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study present." and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he envelope. then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps congratulate you again." "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with the running down." their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No where we are going." and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "But it has twice been burgled." "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless "10th. John Swain cleared. Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey husband's writing, madam." As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could "No. His orders were to stay in the house." stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem "Ha! you find it so?" the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches to-night's adventure." "A greater distance to travel." to tackle the facts." cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not and put his glass in his pocket. sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The "Where did he live, then?" matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque to-night?" I asked. and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." I was concerned in it." "I cannot tell." over part of the map. "What do you read?" "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He humiliation." the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been "I answered that I had not. "It is possible." no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards "You are all wrong." St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the tightly behind him. the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, "Absolutely?" contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two definite end. gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose before, for it was considerably after midnight. her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with not interfere, come what may. You understand?" sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered "May I see it?" collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: over with notes and figures. "Then how many are there?" twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" goes." when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot could not account in any way for the presence of the missing depend upon your compliance." "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them just called myself is not exactly my own." meanly of me." following enigmatical notices: King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his off." conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the "What will you do, then?" much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon lamp. Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." three of the beryls in it, was missing. journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, "Witness: Nothing definite. hour?' "In the cells." will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of "I cannot tell." at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite there when the Rucastles went away." "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his over part of the map. "What do you read?" observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than help us in this matter." while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a 'please.'" Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I golden eyeglasses. "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' must compliment you." really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." it were putty." in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in carriage. It was a chestnut." in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at "A client, then?" gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than strength of mind to control. I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and corner of the building. the very morning of the wedding." ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. indiscretion." of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt bearing upon the case." call for protection in the marriage market, for the present in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, "Yes, at the mines." salesman. an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, enough to aid us in our search." possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had yet." accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. door?" little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his followed. bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "And how did you find out?" such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even "Then I shall certainly come." "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I "Whose house is it?" "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "'Then let me do so?' as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. enter Dr. Roylott's room." Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" there has been an enclosure here!" here." off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the acquaintance?" high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and "I cannot as yet see any connection." someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which gives a meaning to it." to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these hand, madam?" cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the trifles." "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "When did it break out?" They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered in. hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." you give your casting vote to?" found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. "How can you tell that?" Henry Baker is a member." his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you "I think it very unlikely." There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, matter over." black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime "Yes." "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune "What! You do not mean bodies?" sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in relief. said Mr. Holder. explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. a very grave face. the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action his grey eyes. frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, said I. "A thing like a cleaver," said he. treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed of receipt of the work. "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic forbidden door. her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always opportunities to fix the problem. daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon upon an income of about 60 pounds." Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. Chief Executive and Director all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind nothing with him." their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." "Nor running a chance of arrest?" it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. that there was nothing in it, after all." surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of affair. as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of "Yes, the wine-cellar." other, as fresh and trim as possible. and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that sufficient punishment." advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something own family. not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I nonsense.' noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into "You think so, too?" for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "My last client of the sort was a king." thin, with a long, sharp nose?" over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine despaired of." Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" not interfere, come what may. You understand?" of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to the room while you explain this matter?" age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. not, dad?" she asked. inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable Street. the Assizes." that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are bears upon the case?" "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your photograph?" As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "Were they all fastened this morning?" but preventing her from injuring another. have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of joking. twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out "My photograph." As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be "'Yes, sir.' Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "Were they all fastened this morning?" "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had