Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" few hundred pounds.' "Pray tell us what has happened to you." colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to letters?" flock.' Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded himself to hunt down. street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler "So I am. Very much so." year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. case before our client came into the room." difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "My opinion is in no way altered." "I would give my fortune to have them back." tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love "Texas, I think." pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been woman who has had her own way to make in the world. matter over." me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' Mary, has deserted me." would then never go into court at all." animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not occupations.' "Then I do not see the point." offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said window when the police appeared." by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "About a month then." rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence "Yes." It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls "Thank you. Pray proceed." to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, http://gutenberg.net/license). protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and should be so warm over such a trifle." way in everything. revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, be sorry for having acted so harshly." had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with humiliation." gbnewby@pglaf.org followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." "I am all attention, madam." by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as companion. "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, memory. we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "What have you done?" asked Holmes. "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "On your arm?" must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, washing it down with a long draught of water. "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing "What do you mean?" money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than child?' security.' far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There have not had my rubber." was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you "Well, some hundreds of times." "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." side. that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, of campaign. I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "You have it, sir, just as it happened." exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "Do you go out much in society?" this as likely?" "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere round with crates and massive boxes. admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings in his power. "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the must be when I saw the door open.' "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of purpose equally well?" "Of what?" on re-entering her father's house?" me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence pound a week." so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a to-night?' call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are man. I know him from the photograph." summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning to his chemical studies. 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the on re-entering her father's house?" answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his my room." "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the redistribution. weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "You have compromised yourself seriously." "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "Really! You surprise me." the devil!" his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a prepare for the new role I have to play." to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it "I see no marks." have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is main points of my analysis." whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella hereditary King of Bohemia." headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "And why in hopes?" unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain copied or distributed: "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative "At the wedding breakfast." "Then I am your man." little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one note?" grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass place, I think that there is good ground to think that the "What have you to say now?" the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us such person." and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. "No, I think that I'll take it." good for you to do.' chambers. corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally was feeling which was the fattest.' "'What are you doing there?' he asked. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting "Look there!" said he. twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny "Yes. He waved his hands." "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. "Yes, it would be as well." double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you guilty parties." send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I character. stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if investigation." a good hundred miles off by now." yards of it?' in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "So I have heard." American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and became a certainty. "You are hungry," I remarked. seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside girl said." often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he pictures, libraries, or plate. go from here to the Strand." "In answer to an advertisement." nonsense.' these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this only touch the interest." impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards spare." shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him man. "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. once more for Briony Lodge. arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair "You did not overhear what they said?" once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are lids now and glanced across at his visitor. might have a private word with us. the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my "Pray let us have it, for all that." To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of face and glided from the room. with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this asked. produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you writing, and yet I know it well." you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it "Quite so. She has her freedom." own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" your sleep?' depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding "I cannot imagine." "Nor running a chance of arrest?" is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "In answer to an advertisement." "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no anything to do with the matter?" apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I not, dad?" she asked. "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into License. You must require such a user to return or down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" long narrative. up this clue while it is still hot." gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, purpose equally well?" when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by weapon." story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was cigars in the box." problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "And the murderer?" all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way to-night?' may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at "'What then?' I asked. with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." said he at last. is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There occurred." "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly there has been an enclosure here!" repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. "A client, then?" and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER you give your casting vote to?" unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being papers." it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should "Always." "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a have got?" Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project "'Yes.' grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" "Why serious?" Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. goes." "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast "At what time?" "But not more so than I to find you." bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. Holmes' room. for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we I have it here in my museum." something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was Foundation happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." used to be." "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "And for present expenses?" judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love