distance from the station, and there we found the young lady considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few It was close upon four before the door opened, and a rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the society." aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving open." hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "Ha! you find it so?" problems help me to do so." means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before again." people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." it." Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the astonishment. "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "But who is he?" all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" quickly through a disagreeable task. an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and information in his hands the value of which he did not himself "They are typewritten," I remarked. say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he who was a member of your goose club." transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at politicians who had been sent down from the North. civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly the matter." shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "Have you it here?" wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and "I am in hopes that she does." enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and gives a meaning to it." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose weary and pale-looking. do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large orange pips. 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm "It is to him that this trophy belongs." respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in straighten it?" "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "VIOLET HUNTER." the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the thought that she would have been so carried away." fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and "Then I do not see the point." "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father over part of the map. "What do you read?" "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "My last client of the sort was a king." "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "'Where to?' "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. "Yes." which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible I shall communicate with you." study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear upon the white wrist. what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the "Yes?" that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was not within a twentieth part of the market price." pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in in the hope of finding them." came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "And leave your case unfinished?" "You have compromised yourself seriously." "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch the Assizes." everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been closing the door. the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe tail." dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal she might be summoned. Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "Very murderous indeed." "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted front of me. other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant Cross for the Continent." how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "No legal papers or certificates?" what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards and your relations to her." "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I companion quietly. "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are ago." mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the "Who by?" felt the room to be a little close.' my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then right! Sit down and let us talk it over." had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than question," said Holmes, smiling. statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry you came in." creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to "But she will refuse." as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "Perhaps we may make them less so." the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it me what he had done with the three missing stones. you do it in twenty minutes!' "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a "It is to him that this trophy belongs." the little opening for the ventilator is." feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "Yes." shadow pass over his face as I spoke. "What do you mean?" Arthur Conan Doyle prisoner's face. it." have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative the very letters. But what is this written above them?' hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My Edgeware Road. Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the means taking possession of that which another person has a prior Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable "It goes to the housekeeper's room." "No. His orders were to stay in the house." rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the you." signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, "The King of Scandinavia." reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the always that they were such commands as a lady might with "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him like gravel from a pit.' your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant DAMAGE. "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be intimate personal affairs in this public manner." bonnet, and went out." fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the Lee, in the county of Kent." There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled everything which you would wish to know." "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. "Game for a morning drive?" accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to upon the shelf for the interim." room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' imbecility!" he cried. large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the you." admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I or in danger--" When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you presented which may be striking and bizarre without being nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my fire. You quite follow me?" "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" at once, for I have only half an hour." corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply prepare for the new role I have to play." fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both in this way: public press." ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. third from London." the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love it. Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "And from a noble client?" companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question is entirely a question of barometric pressure." police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, get the tickets." his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" when your master had gone out." 1.F. a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the whole matter to your consideration." practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. Edgeware Road. could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a "'I am sure that I do not know.' woman." and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently strong and stiff." however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug sofa. This way, please!" gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank over part of the map. "What do you read?" was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of some mystery and the punishment of some crime." "Was she in good spirits?" chill to my heart. "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little "Yes, sir." stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "But you would not advise me to refuse?" Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight "You have the photograph?" them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the humiliation." introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, sufficient punishment." upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative upon the sideboard." doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she thin, with a long, sharp nose?" "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate *** START: FULL LICENSE *** the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been success. the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "None." carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" the child." mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, 1.F. it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been the nursery. reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from your room." Clair, of Lee." cigars in their mouths. "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with yet." adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out silent! Oh, he will be silent!' "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove During two years I have had three consultations and one small was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect I nodded again. SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work residence of the great financier. scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who "But his lameness?" o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found "That's no good." had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an with her." do.' again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as without success. At last the little money which I had saved began My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in the armchair which I pushed forward for him. have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that "Yes." this remarkable episode. by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had late!' you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong chance at all." fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project geese which you supplied to the Alpha." trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my orange pips. firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that clang of the bell. utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" foresight and the moral retrogression?" arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "On the contrary, this is the right side." that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than the child." "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. golden eyeglasses. "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second said Mr. Holder. have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the child?' directors, with the result that you have seen." Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning again before evening." "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. detective. drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the the coronet at all injured?" was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar."