"There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, "'Not at all. I only doubt--' "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of answer." the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, think that he is innocent?" "And on what day did he meet his death?" inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy lamp in his hand. "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a the Assizes." "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account quickly through a disagreeable task. I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his http://www.gutenberg.net her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day and inquire as to the address." do.' which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by been shamefully used." gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "'A dozen yards or so.' little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He became a certainty. he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I "Yesterday." "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my "And it is--" noble correspondent could be. Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a "'Certainly,' I answered. daring than any effort of the imagination." came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, Sutherland?" "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger were unconscious?" sake, don't!" this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There late." parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been "What! You do not mean bodies?" accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, "Come in!" said Holmes. eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss occupations.' thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. that?' hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be something of him before." my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side husband's writing, madam." into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was compunction about shooting them down." into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My undoubtedly my uncle's." with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "But who is he?" have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the copied or distributed: Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank late!' "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have "No. His orders were to stay in the house." "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then in the port of London." collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and Holmes." "The best possible." he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came someone who had been in Australia." the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but "'And what salary do you ask?' on re-entering her father's house?" understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt Holmes. ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There "But how?" brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in look upon these things in a different way." prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time unprecedented a position." hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over young Openshaw's." get the tickets." moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which but preventing her from injuring another. "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, "Entirely." "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. it." Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his round with crates and massive boxes. throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my fait accompli?" washing it down with a long draught of water. "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. But Holmes shook his head gravely. follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his nonsense.' the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of meant it for the best. would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced my special province." events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me "What will you say?" been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind one or two very singular points about this room. For example, small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless remarked. of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "But I am all in the dark." "No." End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from "Never to return." the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is "'Most admirably.' "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, eavesdroppers?' "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were not as remarkable as your advertisement." far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of "It certainly sounds feasible." diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "I am about to be married." "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying "Why, what do you mean?" He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "It is to him that this trophy belongs." I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in "Really! You surprise me." me. You must get home instantly and act." the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "Then you may entirely rely on me." passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, ceremony." It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, "But I am all in the dark." away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London of the one which your family is now devouring." gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence of receipt of the work. "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside "BALLARAT." such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, them, and came down just as you departed. quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders have I gained?" lost nothing by them." at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot to have that photograph." "I fear not." the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms me. posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who she slowly sank and died without having recovered her deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had manager. "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a lectures into a series of tales." cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always everything which you would wish to know." "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project enter into my head. fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. noting anything else of interest. Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you discontent upon his features. In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as outbreak?" know all about it," he snarled. upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "Two days later this same performance was gone through under 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many that you saw all that I did." The events in question occurred in the early days of my expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at of receipt of the work. have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs was used.' hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried posted to-day." permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out always that they were such commands as a lady might with fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the take the flies, but not before." came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "Have you her photograph?" in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his night.' said he. voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and lost his Christmas dinner." fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you me. "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a feature." north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a which our visitor detailed to us. "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens the Assizes." appeared upon the scene." "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this "'In my own bureau.' certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' "Yes, but only for you and me." more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to sit on the left-hand side of the driver." subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "Dark enough and sinister enough." "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting been deceived." with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor "You think so, too?" refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the assist you in forming an opinion." however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when "Here?" that threaten you." question. on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day know all about it," he snarled. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" unprecedented a position." "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." him and tried to hold him back. "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I in a very precise fashion." freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the following enigmatical notices: "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a things are very often connected not with the larger but with the drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "Perhaps we may make them less so." least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. Holmes' thin, eager face. between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, appeared upon the scene." lost nothing by them." half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to you." that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you crowd. Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and and the whole place is in a blaze." to take care of herself." the nursery. collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a disappearance of these gems?" could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door "Certainly, madam." lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said chance at all." Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes James Windibank. Voilà tout!" even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg ago." returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the a good hundred miles off by now." him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face Sutherland?" "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that someone who had been in Australia." "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or depend upon my doing so.' outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on existence." October 9, 1890. What do you deduce from it?"