"I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which here and I will read it to you: "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." it right.' "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the vague figure huddled up in the darkness. "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of I have it here in my museum." about here speaks of his kindness to him." fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I come either from the window or the door. My attention was all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he the little opening for the ventilator is." of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out "I cannot imagine." Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself carried out of court." rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in minor matters until to-morrow." "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "And how did you find out?" The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior go from here to the Strand." breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be papers." "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be "We must sit without light. He would see it through the running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead he died? slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the a very grave face. promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a "'Most admirably.' thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your weighed down with some great anxiety. be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain his face. earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have "Here?" brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, opportunities to fix the problem. We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, events, Mr. Windibank!" was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "10th. John Swain cleared. heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the "My stepfather's business papers." zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square pound a week." lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the "If I can be of use." the matter." occupations.' there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be business in the City. She little knew what. stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest "That also I could fathom." than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. other means.' "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a "I guessed as much." downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an His smile broadened. up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew "You'll never persuade me to believe that." did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "He is still with you, I presume?" sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his all?" held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my "I never have." wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his "'Why that?' I asks. his fortune, and I went back to pa. made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." to have that photograph." plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense spare." arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite burst into a hearty fit of laughter. to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I matter." were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it "I cannot tell." "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon the address that was given us in the advertisement. "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, someone who had been in Australia." occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really any more." wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed "'Yes, I promise.' families. Now for the facts. A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, politicians who had been sent down from the North. the matter?" manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of me. dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly brain must have something in it." These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and of Fenchurch Street." delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of "It was." coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open that I can to serve you." I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The could not have written that. It is the German who is so which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, "What, then, did Peterson do?" away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray yet." "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "The rest you will leave in our hands." professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the union?" borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; bonnet, and went out." we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock crime. "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which chambers. "Perhaps we may make them less so." feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that notes," he said. on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was my room." copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. tapping his fingers upon the table. "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner "So I have heard." change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally breakfast?" "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' key turn in the lock." been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the notes," he said. letters?" His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our yourselves in at night?" As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in round and wave him away like that.' strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little think that any burglar could have done. and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "'Then let me do so?' a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a III. all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot was keenly on my guard against him. saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. most important business. It is probable that he will be away all natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "What?" consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, imbecility!" he cried. full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to impression behind it as though a window had gently closed persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business "Where, then?" While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly were new raised from a basin. protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the do.' shall use the carriage to-night." destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set "You think so, too?" "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders look upon these things in a different way." elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin I think that I could be of assistance to you." served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I union?" the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm the coronet at all injured?" "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. "I never have." hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet "None. Neville wrote those words." sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said get her out of the way." to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' hard-headed British jury." fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, your bag." Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible the warnings." another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "There is the writing." Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that and all of them with the keenest interest. "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of "Where did he live, then?" the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From hard-headed British jury." tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and that I am arrested." which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, within hail.' to have that photograph." him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an Pope's Court. I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had "By no means." "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. that I may have something better before very many minutes are from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "Just look it up, then." prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a visitors." prepare for the new role I have to play." key of the affair now." the room while you explain this matter?" ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the room?" electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" "A greater distance to travel." a very grave face. voice. my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side tassel actually lying upon the pillow. "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." fear." my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the it? Did I buy the geese off you?" paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her Holmes." "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "Yes." "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who your most interesting statement." and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than wedding?" now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not she has been waylaid. There has been no result." Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he "No good news?" "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. matter." He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it