"Of Friday, June 19th." crackling voice. many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." "'And the work?' routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "You have but to name it." to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect prove to be little relation between the different incidents of do.' take the flies, but not before." "I assure you that I am in your hands." through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached you?" were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it works. See paragraph 1.E below. my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "And how did you verify them?" and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot imbecility!" he cried. wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss everything which you would wish to know." throat." reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I politicians who had been sent down from the North. when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to 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 head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or whatever might befall. with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net 'please.'" straightened it out again. difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question look dissatisfied." lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong "Certainly, madam." morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he "No bad?" "No." you." eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to true." conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his coroner's jury." body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" it were putty." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me and looked back. "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was in a friendly supper." dramatic, in fact." of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he "We were both in the photograph." regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in intimate personal affairs in this public manner." we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of "Oh, yes, easily." 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be be best to do. to that open window." Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the Literary Archive Foundation "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the recall any case within my experience which looked at the first the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "That is also quite modern," said the lady. shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he not come at once?" was once confined in the cab my mission was practically going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who certainly not very gracious." of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must "Yes, but only for you and me." refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "Tired-looking or fresh?" "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; may have an influence upon European history." when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" you in your example." dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed awkward doing business with an alias." you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge heavy and sharp instrument." low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' face and glided from the room. His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips look upon these things in a different way." exactly what you advise." About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of appointment with me for six o'clock?" anything to a woman, for she would have her way." do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. to that open window." great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. to-night?" I asked. his face. "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. I held the little printed slip to the light. "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' she to prove their authenticity?" of the way of danger. searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently Clair, of Lee." conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing Stoke Moran." "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of shall use the carriage to-night." had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, you?' the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "'Very good.' brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and "At the wedding breakfast." were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was sparkled upon his finger. ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to to-night's adventure." "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise "What of the rat, then?" refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, The note was undated, and without either signature or address. What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of Clair, of Lee." his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my "Certainly." or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face "I think it very unlikely." wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and crime. which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and depend upon my doing so.' "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman him. knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their overpowering excitement and concern. "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. test if we have an answer to our advertisement." "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have prisoner's face. What do you deduce from it?" before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout felt?" lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the country, and eventually married, without anyone having a "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help information in his hands the value of which he did not himself whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to British peeress.'" coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, Pool. "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "But you can know nothing of this?" "Dark enough and sinister enough." Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my Mary, has deserted me." door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been Leave Paddington by the 11:15." aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three once more on the important position which you have been fortunate urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a "How long did she speak to this Alice?" few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "The landlord of the Alpha." "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" do you make of it all?" Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich the bed, and you in that chair." pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle "She told me to ask you." official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we hardly wander." train.' her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of sake, don't!" confronted him. Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and row." season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he were wasted." "You saw the ventilator, too?" "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that the roots. along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it acquaintance?" to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I and I shall be with you presently." "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. client, rising. "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own grasp, he hurried from the room. he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing "'Very good.' out." the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we chambers. "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Thank you. Pray proceed." Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down your most interesting statement." "It came here." society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. learned something! Where are the gems?" find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to purpose of examination. the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "That's no good." who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place national property. I was determined that the law should have its what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am simple cases which are so extremely difficult." for the market.' furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "And for present expenses?" "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, characteristics, but those are the more obvious." and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until "That sounds a little paradoxical." was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "In which, sir?" errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me "VIOLET HUNTER." crime." the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case "'It is locked up,' I answered. abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. "By all means." "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your me what he had done with the three missing stones. by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over than was visible to me." "It was." broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power of a light. It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he and have this put in the evening papers." and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and I have it here in my museum." "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. only touch the interest." lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand