north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in like gravel from a pit.' possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home opened the door, and slipped through. like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when in the hope of finding them." was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. and glanced through. recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is in. not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. directors, with the result that you have seen." the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! manager. suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to "What will you do, then?" cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a of receipt of the work. which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I very old mansion. time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the 11:15.' "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting "And sit in the dark?" "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "How can you tell that?" her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress "Did you observe the colour?" the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "It is true that I have been generally successful." "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that into the bag, and made for the door. and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece his face. "It is no ordinary one." still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting fattened it expressly for you.' "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in "They are typewritten," I remarked. whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away "But what will you do?" six. Come in!" "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with to affect your life." the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to "He said too much." time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" troubles have been weighing upon his mind. was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "'You doubt its value?' he asked. January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my chambers. with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The remarked. calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand the very letters. But what is this written above them?' down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in yards of it?' had a long day." minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you details." along the entire front of the house, with three long windows who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I "Where is it, then?" of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his gentleman's clothes. delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me "Entirely." "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do who was a member of your goose club." you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing four million human beings all jostling each other within the "In answer to an advertisement." my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid to change my dress. "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I clanging. national property. I was determined that the law should have its didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might instituted." Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my voice. took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is "And how in the world did you find them?" Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, always that they were such commands as a lady might with and the whole place is in a blaze." "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his more terrible than the truth. "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. "Never." subject to the trademark license, especially commercial "Here?" "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless your most interesting statement." "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her "Perhaps I have." of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in him and tried to hold him back. page at http://pglaf.org "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking "Your French gold?" and effective." if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll things are very often connected not with the larger but with the Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, "'I have already given you my word.' his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I his grey eyes. gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken presented which may be striking and bizarre without being starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had It may be so in this case, also." his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, business." "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" that there was nothing in it, after all." of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the go back?" ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded any more." turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at neither fascinating nor artistic." I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "What then?" "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a trifles." named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; been able to understand it, in a very few words. is acting for the best. "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was "It goes to the housekeeper's room." "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' 1.E.9. the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? "His face fell immediately. came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there gone. Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the of a light. of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a populous neighbourhood." for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "Yes." there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me ran thus: volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must down from London to inquire more deeply into it." security.' take the flies, but not before." above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "I guessed as much." against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up "'And the work?' the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on system of imprisonment?" north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my of a light. confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found "Where, then?" hair?' "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us said I. "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can to have been novel and of interest." out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a writer." so.' Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the hardly wander." name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my where Mr. Fordham shows you.' extraordinary contortions. seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "No." "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." "Do you receive much company?" he asked. "No?" your equipment. had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so furiously. was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. fatally injured? "Not in a good cause." never to learn it at all." another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not true." whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, from the brougham. was used.' which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the door?" impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. him, that man would not have given me such complete information "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his in the port of London." "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. "I will get her to show me." he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the three of the beryls in it, was missing. "Yesterday." "No, I think that I'll take it." of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "Have you it here?" lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. past. with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up that he will be back before evening." "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She other lovers by making love himself." reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort quickly through a disagreeable task. we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is "Of Friday, June 19th." humiliation." you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. "Yes, at the mines." presented more singular features than that which was associated erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that yourselves in at night?" had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this London for the present?" gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you handed it to him. the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt rose-bushes. "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar beg that you will break it off." "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry place no limit on the sum I may draw." "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of "Very well, sir. And this stone?" company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before "On your arm?" the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements rooms." and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the swore that no one else had been in the front room during the wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "I have come for advice." which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside nice household for a young lady." plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a coat-tails." Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "'I should be happy to make myself useful.'