drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "In what way?" asked Holmes. the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will recall any case within my experience which looked at the first no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I at once, for I have only half an hour." souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." is entirely a question of barometric pressure." of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), the very letters. But what is this written above them?' to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were served to weaken the effect. "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my Mary, has deserted me." obstinate." "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" morning." repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "I beg pardon." 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and friend's singular character. us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own happened." my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out bears upon the case?" gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you are windows in it, of course?" was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the "'What would be the hours?' I asked. held up the lantern and gazed about him. would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching back to my heart. you?" of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "An accident, I presume?" the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was "No bad?" "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an a good hundred miles off by now." through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the Gutenberg-tm License. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." gone before you can get him to hospital." cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, "No, I had a dozen." for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently fasten all the windows?" "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular point in the dark hollow of his hand. could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly in the port of London." life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my him to go away.' "Only as much as we can deduce." long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine "The best possible." I approached. established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead "No." "Stoke Moran?" said he. "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say awaited us upon the table. Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "What do you mean?" mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events extraordinary contortions. "By train from Waterloo." of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" "I am sure." advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "Was she in good spirits?" struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, an introduction to him?" "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "I will, Miss Turner." confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and himself to tell his story. pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of despair." "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but During two years I have had three consultations and one small "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, standing smiling on the door-step. analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the prove to be little relation between the different incidents of very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. said I. for its centre. servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible acted in my house last night?" the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those closely." "And the cigar-holder?" "In the cells." morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' sneer upon his pale face. chair. the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by "Never." Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large and shall probably return to London by the evening train." remarked. it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." again." only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will a few minutes he said that it would be all right. upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, in the dead of the night?' housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." Serpentine Avenue. Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." "Yes, they were peculiar boots." as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a "A thing like a cleaver," said he. he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand the window, rose as we entered. he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of quickly through a disagreeable task. to a light-house. "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which one of them." the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the know all about it," he snarled. and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, of note-paper. It read in this fashion: possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, "Holmes, the busybody!" and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being three of the beryls in it, was missing. any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be throat." a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, even of instruction." useful material for showing traces. The double line a little said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like upon the white wrist. notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to What do you deduce from it?" empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE which it had come upon my father." "And how?" dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have already been minutely examined." "But I am all in the dark." 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over woven round him. "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "Yes." eavesdroppers?' wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical suspect him." and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in posted to-day." until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon four million human beings all jostling each other within the real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a way: while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more I think that I could be of assistance to you." "Your French gold?" I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "Where is it, then?" disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most "And that is--" the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no business in the City. She little knew what. conceal it?" flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a Holmes." "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the that before taking the final step I should like to submit the in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we It was close upon four before the door opened, and a turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a strode off upon his way. "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things "It's nothing of the kind." remarked. ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has me upon any point which I do not make clear." did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a to go into your room and bar your shutters?" with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." with the outside air!" springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any foot. grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. "You know me, then?" creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm there has been an enclosure here!" silent! Oh, he will be silent!' and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the "My Mary? Impossible!" conclusions. "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. II. "Then you may entirely rely on me." "My private note-paper." he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, which our visitor detailed to us. scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and hopeless attempt at recovering them." greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small who was a member of your goose club." jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said way: "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less hurried away. came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the grasp, he hurried from the room. to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, to-night?' leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned sufficient punishment." "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I and capable of preserving a secret.' into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I voice. take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed heavy and sharp instrument." minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you beg that you will break it off." Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the my special province." "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to leave you to your papers for a little." pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure ways of our fellow-men." was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, congenial hunt. was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, cup of tea. even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." yourselves in at night?" going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to way in." me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary she might be summoned. fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself this as likely?" "But you can know nothing of this?" "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the case before our client came into the room." me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a been deceived." on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and have one." very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the