and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads begun to whiten, even as mine has." round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. "Never." "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the that "Not in the least." nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than Holmes' face clouded over. had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in this Miss Turner." Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks "What shall I do?" of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any his face. "Perhaps we may make them less so." weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely not interfere, come what may. You understand?" "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or "I cannot as yet see any connection." what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "Nothing." intimate personal affairs in this public manner." We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its front of me. push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my for its centre. "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was "Yes, that is the Crown." salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or hereditary King of Bohemia." dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the have an American origin." "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I "It is to him that this trophy belongs." I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little arrested. You then--" handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even enter Dr. Roylott's room." danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but will not take me long to tell. impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass security.' dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more developed." without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "His face fell immediately. cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe the night.' my special province." crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was his face which made him a very different person to the round, "Then I do not see the point." his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "Yes." lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very "You have a clue?" I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he "I will do it." in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "When did she vanish, then?" "It certainly sounds feasible." to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled individual and becomes the badge of a society." individual and becomes the badge of a society." hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor extraordinary contortions. away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his "By train from Waterloo." "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to I leave." compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. forehead. "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "But what will you do?" "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** "Yes." "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a "We must have a cab." "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it "What is it, then--a fire?" reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of "Ten will be early enough." reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he "Yes, he did." possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was depend upon your compliance." India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the where Mr. Fordham shows you.' to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "The gentleman I describe." remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the "You did not overhear what they said?" scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a "But he might be a bachelor." "None. Neville wrote those words." hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when "I have hopes." rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I use an arc-and-compass breastpin." Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband someone who had been in Australia." again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has during that time.' half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the "That also I could fathom." his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for recover the gem." conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is directly by questioning you." "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he some place of shelter and let the county police know what has - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she instituted." know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We breakfast and whispered something to her husband. livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed "Very. But will he see it?" "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ "I have come for advice." "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood the inquest, and which are worth considering." "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if garden below. as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I think that any burglar could have done. other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "Yes." you." Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have criminal. We have already had experience of such." Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I sooner or later she must fall a victim. recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of rat could hardly pass through." access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady and capable of preserving a secret.' He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "I have a cab outside." strong and stiff." a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged "That is possible." the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less within hail.' been anything against him. He had for years been known as a "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "Won't it ring?" good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "What have you done?" asked Holmes. suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms "Yes, I have one waiting." "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "It is his hat." afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while which our visitor detailed to us. glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than will take you up to see the machine.' "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried had died away into the silence from which it rose. are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. "I cannot as yet see any connection." dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a chair. introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." "Never to return." And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I the morning and make my own way in the world.' that before taking the final step I should like to submit the find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of the coronet in his hand?" how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while papers." THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, "But how did you gain them?" When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. of the way of danger. Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were these bleak autumnal evenings." in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the was lame." estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their weary and pale-looking. answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying Lee, in the county of Kent." be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to cost them two and thirty pounds." should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we we went to search for him, face downward in a little retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. you, my dear young lady?' house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "Well, some hundreds of times." bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. is four-and-twenty." Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my strength." fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which speckled band?" effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar following enigmatical notices: expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a looking up at the numbers of the houses." were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, absorbing." "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own right! Sit down and let us talk it over." remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy "Where to?" yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at matter." "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more success. feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her disturbance in my wife." my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian pictures, libraries, or plate. geese which you supplied to the Alpha." "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my this man was intellectual?" he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my have an American origin." reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the the house with me." self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." some mystery and the punishment of some crime." "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. detained." easy-going way." gone. "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we go back?" piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband article?"