forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as strength of mind to control. one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a "It may not come to that," said Holmes. "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my help us in this matter." "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden suspect him." case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should details should find their way into the papers. Inspector "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It maiden herself was most instructive." in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You test if we have an answer to our advertisement." struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, During two years I have had three consultations and one small had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the triumphant cloud from his cigarette. you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is "One?" plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off tied." "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with "'Entirely.' which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for as noiselessly as she had come. "What will you say?" little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "Do you go out much in society?" a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at time." "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss present." stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been get her out of the way." "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have thin, with a long, sharp nose?" gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, "I fear not." conclusions. "I guessed as much." brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "It is no ordinary one." "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington husband's writing, madam." "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as good for you to do.' Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl shag which I had seen upon the previous night. uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with despair." a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. information in his hands the value of which he did not himself aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he already referred to. "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of "But who is he?" now. It seems that there had been some informality about their which we had just quitted. pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the this unhappy family?" father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily of his shoulders. "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My sentimental considerations in the background which would induce face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he and files of the old papers, following the future career of every as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, you give your casting vote to?" were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. room had already been engaged for us. stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion his eyes and forehead. you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is certainly not very gracious." her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make off." not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might ill-usage at the hands of fortune. Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders she slowly sank and died without having recovered her story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on residence of the great financier. her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that he. armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the the very letters. But what is this written above them?' tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At Arthur Conan Doyle "I was certainly surprised to find you there." previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his business matters.' cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. outsides of the windows. Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and as he folded up the epistle. save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to before, for it was considerably after midnight. done what I asked you, Jones?" of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and even so self-evident a thing as that." should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how was not a bird to be seen there. that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the was a loud and authoritative tap. before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "And you can do nothing until then?" "Certainly." it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose Holmes' face clouded over. "One?" firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. already referred to. will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed criminal. We have already had experience of such." even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each perplexity from it to my illustrious client. as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "You horrify me!" it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's it." digesting their breakfasts at home." "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and train from Paddington which would bring you there at about "I am armed." brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I "Yes." gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of and your relations to her." "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to situation." in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story events than those which have happened in my own family." "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" "Yes." "Proceed, then." both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." of note-paper. It read in this fashion: But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in "He disappeared so suddenly." more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of chance at all." foresight and the moral retrogression?" and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which "Whose house is it?" fashion which was peculiar to him. abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but examination of the premises, but without finding anything which 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. Chief Executive and Director him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. "Pray do so." "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' "'Yes.' cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram has little to do with my story." III. giving me time to thank him. or in danger--" his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some and wait." silent! Oh, he will be silent!' rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a guilty parties." "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to standing smiling on the door-step. would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all that he has suffered." himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat him!" me upon any point which I do not make clear." "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after "You will not go there first?" "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "Then I shall certainly come." one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for fact, we may call it conclusive." travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. "Dr. Becher's." parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide as yours." "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. "I don't say that. Perhaps." reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "You did not overhear what they said?" friends, not even his own brother. up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over coat-tails." immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! of Fenchurch Street." "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his cause to be." While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' man. upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before directly by questioning you." "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant tell me that you intended to go into harness." morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding business." "Game for a morning drive?" he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the Gutenberg-tm License. seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "And on what day did he meet his death?" it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I "A thing like a cleaver," said he. firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very swore that no one else had been in the front room during the of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked "Her father is very rich?" "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, foot. upon an income of about 60 pounds." arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a might help us?" "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to o'clock is it?" by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were conclusions. "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able details should find their way into the papers. Inspector from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "And Irene Adler?" evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and standing smiling on the door-step. there is a decided draught." "You have carte blanche." uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual forecastle of an emigrant ship. Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was married her." broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, whereabouts. "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good "But you were on a friendly footing?" "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when because she had spent so short a time in this country that she and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns away into the river." considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I shag which I had seen upon the previous night. can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be,