yet." our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in him and tried to hold him back. I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all your room." any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat be best to do. man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of this unhappy family?" power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one him to go away.' the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with quick march!" late!' a monotonous occupation." the coronet in his hands?" introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the "Do you know him?" indiscretion." unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "Witness: I must still refuse. Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps not come at once?" his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It "It must be recovered." it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows is a common subject for conversation. however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong fear." found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, awaited us upon the table. of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open vault. and looked back. "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' about here speaks of his kindness to him." on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing "Nor running a chance of arrest?" "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum "Not in the least." The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it asked with his eyes open. "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was "10th. John Swain cleared. "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out carriage. It was a chestnut." in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted bore every mark of being an average commonplace British his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." front of the hall door has given its name to the place. face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday case-book, which he consulted. yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked Mary, has deserted me." pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "In San Francisco, a year ago." "'And the work?' important." me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my "One of the highest in England." then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such thin legs towards the fire. "Then you may be so with me." would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father evidence," I remarked. Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a fat-encircled eyes. up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his "She showed me, as I told you she would." very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell train.' result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "I never have." of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and "And what did you learn from him?" and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us woman." clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman get the tickets." sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, there is a decided draught." quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she "Where did he live, then?" "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De relief. "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against Munro.' conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable second." deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door their singular warning or token before them when starting upon which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend Holmes' face clouded over. the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped undoubtedly my uncle's." than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. "Texas, I think." very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a a monotonous occupation." arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and within hail.' "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged fluttered off among the others. this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" to-night's adventure." attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, frequently gained my first real insight into the character of gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "10th. John Swain cleared. "Deserted you?" strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I notes," he said. not as remarkable as your advertisement." "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a to miss it." your only hope of safety." heavily into it. Cross for the Continent." he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, in my life." money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident to affect your life." granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into "'Stolen!' he cried. "Will you go?" "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" this man was intellectual?" "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each "Do you know him?" out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, "By no means." other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over learned something! Where are the gems?" "'Is purely nominal.' we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, in a friendly supper." "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "I was certainly surprised to find you there." It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his back into the street. labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which you, my dear young lady?' "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I "Were they all fastened this morning?" him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right electronic works You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in ready to-morrow?' Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it point our research must commence, and we will begin it by the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever "It may not come to that," said Holmes. at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came my room." few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case "The doctor?" you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, fuss that is made over them." End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by followed. interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My October 9, 1890. and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one "And now?" He raised his hand. "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." "'I am sure if I had known--' "I should like to see him very much." "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have way in everything. to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without like that before?" "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him could not account in any way for the presence of the missing through." "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer be.' than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no spark where all is dark to me." appointment with me for six o'clock?" saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a over his head with a sweet womanly caress. "Ample." combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which row." object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the she has been waylaid. There has been no result." clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an "You know me, then?" named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the place, I think that there is good ground to think that the "A thing like a cleaver," said he. business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' examination of the premises, but without finding anything which As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay "That is unusual in a young girl." Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the "About a month then." "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of in his hands." instincts rose up against that laugh. the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them remarked. Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend strength in the others." "This photograph!" Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' "But his left-handedness." Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; present." course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and events, Mr. Windibank!" I held the little printed slip to the light. there were so many in the whole country as were brought together probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps meant." 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became "To ruin me." like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. "Yes, from Horsham." freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to corner of the building. "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, rose-bushes. half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. the inner apartment." similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle "Yes." news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers within hail.' "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, know what is wrong with it.' Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money chambers. uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he "And how did you find out?" "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in gone. down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are what is your own theory as to what took place?" acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me said he. much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know developed." Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against "And when will you call?" threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the