prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its arrangements." "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said so far?" they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." it." helping a boy to put up the shutters. village inn over there?" them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, it means?" knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from case-book, which he consulted. "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who secret." "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has orange pips. life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just a monotonous occupation." the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "Very murderous indeed." License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, useful material for showing traces. The double line a little attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not "But of what society?" "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" always that they were such commands as a lady might with "I will get her to show me." just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter leave you to your papers for a little." I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm fasten all the windows?" places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle The events in question occurred in the early days of my how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' married her." When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "In answer to an advertisement." "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "Why did you beat the pavement?" was once confined in the cab my mission was practically hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four papers diligently of late, have you not?" we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it own family. "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." vague figure huddled up in the darkness. coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on held up the lantern and gazed about him. her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never ill-usage at the hands of fortune. enter into my head. "Did you observe the colour?" on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. like gravel from a pit.' were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked Chief Executive and Director her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was seem to you to be relevant or not." about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite see me here to avoid scandal." glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "But she could not love him." goes." "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was "Then the page we have seen--" "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know "Where is it, then?" "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as at once, for I have only half an hour." 1.F. possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. door?" never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day will he say when he returns?" presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. there has been an enclosure here!" her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others John Swain, of St. Augustine. before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the "Your French gold?" would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear have got?" my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me ago." considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about very old mansion. "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending From what you have told me I think that it is possible that said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like during which he might have communicated with his friend the to where he stood hid behind the curtain. A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," a suggestive one." "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "What can it mean?" I gasped. "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice said he. is four-and-twenty." tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I congenial hunt. which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst "'Very good.' evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in mysterious business." "Holmes, the busybody!" about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to "Whose house is it?" charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon "It is true that I have been generally successful." the stones. definite end. "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable "And on what day did he meet his death?" this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a "How are you getting on?" simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and that threaten you." relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I "Then he might have called to you?" younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and instituted." ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere served to weaken the effect. luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. and looked back. mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone it right.' "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a were wasted." Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project o'clock is it?" searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: may never be exposed to such a temptation." sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but extraordinary contortions. and effective." goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working "Yes." if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is wedding?" they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it amused." look upon these things in a different way." "'No, I know no one in these parts.' wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I case before our client came into the room." much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the learned something! Where are the gems?" more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "Very much so." have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "Yes." "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. "None." "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of extraordinary contortions. in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." "She will not sell." "Certainly." police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked "How did you trace it, then?" assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say call the police, let the police find what they can.' recall any case within my experience which looked at the first grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt off." have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main three fields round his house, and there he would take his the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and children over to America with him, so that I found myself without strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too "'What do you call purely nominal?' permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a the running down." "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on you in your example." Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a to where he stood hid behind the curtain. "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to "Imitated." facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, noting anything else of interest. "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are occupations.' "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved details should find their way into the papers. Inspector affection." have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand matter over." can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to the very morning of the wedding." for its centre. little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I bird I ate is country bred." salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All But Holmes shook his head gravely. to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, you for a few hours?" state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "Indeed! Whose, then?" Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length kind enough to tell me what I should do." practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens your troubles." "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair south, for the country is more deserted there." whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to presented more singular features than that which was associated To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some key of the affair now." no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had "Certainly." salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some "Witness: Nothing definite. I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." swore that no one else had been in the front room during the prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar "Yes, certainly." to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." this truth that in these little records of our cases which you and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat window when the police appeared." nonsense.' very morning of my second wedding." "You have carte blanche." mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my knowledge of the world." varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, Sutherland?" wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." "You know me, then?" your troubles." didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society placed his cuttings. "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be where Mr. Fordham shows you.' daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows chemical work which was so dear to him. and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, wall." took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as name is different." at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself at home. of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That "If so, much may have happened between." surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the that I can to serve you." "Yes, I have one waiting." III. "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as despair." "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my of the vacancies.' this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." intimate personal affairs in this public manner." be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them this Miss Turner." if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should three fields round his house, and there he would take his "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him should be so warm over such a trifle." "About a month then." "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do could not have written that. It is the German who is so "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key woman who has had her own way to make in the world. standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was are, and they are waiting for us." pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys is so. I know all about McCarthy." "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed and wait." of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came "Here?" "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the the ceiling. grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey key of the affair now." could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' bonnet, and went out." time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon my secret was safe in his possession. "Then I shall certainly come." about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible been able to understand it, in a very few words. and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until