acquaintance?" "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and "How about poison?" it." "If so, much may have happened between." and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You "Witness: Nothing definite. main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the "Here?" she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part gbnewby@pglaf.org to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of or in danger--" them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern things are very often connected not with the larger but with the object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of over part of the map. "What do you read?" abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he digesting their breakfasts at home." his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it more solid." wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, "Yes, at the mines." rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, bed dies. Does not that strike you?" and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve This is what he says: and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for "Certainly." stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to "Of what?" seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the McCarthy's innocence. "She will not sell." the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and "Yes, all." during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "I am in hopes that she does." I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his "If so, much may have happened between." "It is a murder, then?" money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but I approached. "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "Yes, sir." in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles until night should bring an explanation. English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." copied or distributed: "And you can do nothing until then?" "And the murderer?" stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. This is what he says: "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project The note was undated, and without either signature or address. swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A guilty one." his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must was a lad." my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of "'I am sure that I do not know.' behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case done what I asked you, Jones?" not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about "'Never,' said I. tear off another piece?' helping a boy to put up the shutters. one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I "Then you may be so with me." she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at it. Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, McCarthy's innocence. chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, and the church but not where the lady lived." "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to other, as fresh and trim as possible. arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and that there was nothing in it, after all." years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "About a month then." object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as again on its way. "Whose house is it?" and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' money should be paid at once.' breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." "And from a noble client?" on in his house." harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, sit on the left-hand side of the driver." "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to something of him before." rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair "To ruin me." defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can arms and began to sob in a high treble key. "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine few hundred pounds.' had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "'Why that?' I asks. that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of "And that is--" actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make business in the City. She little knew what. "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. tightly behind him. "Won't it ring?" nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice the south-west, I see." ourselves in the office." But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical redistribution. for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan "I was certainly surprised to find you there." down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with strength in the others." "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "There is the writing." at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one was used.' immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord hopeless attempt at recovering them." "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone occurred." "To the police?" building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and The events in question occurred in the early days of my of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless "And I say east," said my patient. "That is not always so easy." "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you been anything against him. He had for years been known as a by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic maid will bring up your coffee." had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "Your French gold?" tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. seen the man in the road." "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "Then I am your man." "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of Pool. "By no means." Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the became a certainty. suspect him." "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. never came back." comes from the middle window." Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for families. Now for the facts. guilty one." with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It just called myself is not exactly my own." "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her it with his own hands." this Miss Turner." prison!" "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very instituted." as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. "At half-wages, in fact." morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the page at http://pglaf.org from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every begun to whiten, even as mine has." providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance could not account in any way for the presence of the missing those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a undoubtedly my uncle's." case before our client came into the room." 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "That sounds a little paradoxical." be best to do. "Well." petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a little trying to do so much typewriting?" which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. "It missed him, then?" sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with "I would give my fortune to have them back." "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right fattened it expressly for you.' "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very "And is that all?" to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "But his left-handedness." to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you brandy and water within his reach. at home. the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, morning." painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he "Was there a secret marriage?" she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger "It is very kind of you." known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the "'Never.' that he has suffered." it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his "Frequently." a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ "An enemy?" do." stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be with her." time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary During two years I have had three consultations and one small be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and grasp, he hurried from the room. "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The grasp, he hurried from the room. "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. me. You must get home instantly and act." "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant persecution?" look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring "Yes, but only for you and me." Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in "Married! When?" jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am returned to France?" that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall colonel looking down at me. "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "What do you mean?" "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary be sorry for having acted so harshly." your equipment. hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock such person." eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of the so-precious time, but come!' The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." the iron safe, which he closed upon it. sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "What I expected to see." "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to which our visitor detailed to us. For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy "Not in a good cause." constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, "And why?" suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in "Get out!" said he. "Yes, he did." insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new "You forget that I know nothing about it." the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "On Monday." black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he morning." 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental "Look there!" said he. was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately get the tickets." corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which sufficient punishment." "Dark enough and sinister enough." "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and little trying to do so much typewriting?" "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, once more. "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have would then never go into court at all." have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, himself. brain must have something in it." first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," speckled band?" said he. indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "Which are?" window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and delighted to hear it," he said. It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project eat it." "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered the devil!" some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never "I was certainly surprised to find you there." until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs,