are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project delighted to hear it," he said. "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his Cross for the Continent." "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear cup of tea. circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has the iron safe, which he closed upon it. that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, me what he had done with the three missing stones. put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of from the brougham. words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow at my remark. not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for test if we have an answer to our advertisement." "Oh, yes, easily." "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice pressing in one house as in another. had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I feature." is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and neither fascinating nor artistic." gbnewby@pglaf.org poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical "Yes." money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a "Yes, it would be as well." "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has States. "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an tell me that you intended to go into harness." "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still some terrible trap for her." believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and more terrible than the truth. invisible to me," I remarked. instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told ashen face. "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the exactly what you advise." "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that "How often?" should be so warm over such a trifle." week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between colonel looking down at me. gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would thin, with a long, sharp nose?" "'Most admirably.' collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would geese which you supplied to the Alpha." his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very "I cannot think." absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the people in all walks of life. some place of shelter and let the county police know what has to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I "I shall be delighted." Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" "That is not always so easy." it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is "A client, then?" which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in "Your French gold?" "'Oh, no.' "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the said he at last. you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a on re-entering her father's house?" not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he "I will not look." The events in question occurred in the early days of my him to be an active member of the medical profession." weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to looking up at the numbers of the houses." old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes the side-table." prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could him." "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet said I. Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "But you can know nothing of this?" article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to "Quite so. She has her freedom." natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture the roots. in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high him to go away.' sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the one as in the other." to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it hour?' "You have carte blanche." you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, ready to-morrow?' round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you green of the new foliage. "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and mysterious business." assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's McCarthy's innocence. lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told "At what time?" "I fear not." upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs directly by questioning you." Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "'Why that?' I asks. you." Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "I should be immensely obliged to you." had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that visitors." What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's which it had come upon my father." astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; horse could go." passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't and effective." old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "How did you trace it, then?" For additional contact information: round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of States. gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be "What will you say?" "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' "Yes, they were peculiar boots." presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some weigh very heavily upon my conscience." are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be "Can I be of assistance?" my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See colonel looking down at me. "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "No, I think that I'll take it." "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock straightened it out again. lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should "Your sister is dead, then?" Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to light and attacked it." the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to province." window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a "Quite so. She has her freedom." "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not "So I have heard." "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt "It surprised me." "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my fishes. have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the together. threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness I took the paper from him and read as follows: though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the "Stolen, then." "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been only touch the interest." He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and strength in the others." "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to of Mr. Rucastle's." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I back to my heart. "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here manager. other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced "The vanishing of the lady." in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. this Miss Turner." written, and locked the door of the office after me. "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I it? Did I buy the geese off you?" the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the the matter." master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "I should like to see him very much." were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so vague figure huddled up in the darkness. life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. out." have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. "And what did you see?" that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." and the church but not where the lady lived." last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "This concluded the examination of the witness." entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it hurried by. great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the lamp in his hand. You want to know what became of those geese?" "I have hopes." London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little highly," said Holmes. "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you "Where, indeed?" "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from train.' "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger wedding?" they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to "To an English lawyer named Norton." "Then, how do you know?" "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one "'Is purely nominal.' point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked heavy and sharp instrument." "Not yet." sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There children over to America with him, so that I found myself without say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of James Windibank. Voilà tout!" "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may point our research must commence, and we will begin it by favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I touch that coronet?' "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were to tackle the facts." caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened brandy and water within his reach. that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and charged with?" The King stared at him in amazement. "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of sparkled upon his finger. iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding Holmes. the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you derbies." with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such at home. "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or hands. It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my you." that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project putting in the horse. "By all means." "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." geese which you supplied to the Alpha." "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and "'What then?' I asked. or in danger--" "BALLARAT." "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was thought that she would have been so carried away." married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you advice." He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I "Not in a good cause." jewels which you have stolen?' were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee,