and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked in his power. "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird guilty parties." labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a there in twenty minutes." "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. nonsense.' and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some Sutherland?" a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off could go. "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and back to my heart. in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "Stoke Moran?" said he. "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts arms and began to sob in a high treble key. to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" in the port of London." fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and may never be exposed to such a temptation." Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation fuss that is made over them." such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. Holmes. "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. go back?" so far?" in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I Leadenhall Street--and--" through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. "No more words. Get out!" "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." where Mr. Fordham shows you.' the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were undoubtedly my uncle's." always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had gone. squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and "Which surely he restored to their owner?" which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each go--none." my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So know what is wrong with it.' eavesdroppers?' in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our leave you to your papers for a little." The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit "Absolutely?" examine." clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your "I answered that I had not. "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to out." himself to tell his story. "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' begun to whiten, even as mine has." "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very "I cannot imagine." what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains coroner's jury." "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. may have an influence upon European history." the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a to surprise her." agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal to-night." their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, "No, but the enclosure is." that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I roused himself from his reverie. "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," the coronet in his hand?" discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow Cross for the Continent." fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to at my own good fortune. human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and as he folded up the epistle. doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a Count Von Kramm." best detective that ever lived. I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence your own bird, so if you wish--" dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the direction." "And why?" dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked "'Never.' "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself for securing the situation." objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that light and attacked it." hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet vanished into the darkness. "Precisely." worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A pity, because in other respects you would really have done very "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands cigars in their mouths. his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "I am still in the dark." 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, "No. What a strange idea!" "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom to-night." out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a "You'll never persuade me to believe that." mystery." flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting served to weaken the effect. the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to already referred to. few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any "My dear Holmes!" slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. spare." "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "'Stolen!' he cried. have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See "No more words. Get out!" "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. confronted him. demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. and the church but not where the lady lived." pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by "'And the work?' never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES will not take me long to tell. "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I investigation." Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "'I shall certainly be there.' between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found new duties?' Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. this man was intellectual?" across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him cigars in their mouths. "Well, some hundreds of times." while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the Holmes' face clouded over. remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a "You have compromised yourself seriously." thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. "Then the page we have seen--" man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age "Ten will be early enough." absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely business matters.' was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid never will be, entirely cleared up. One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. "But we can't all be." battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with name is different." "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have is four-and-twenty." to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," he bowed and left the room without another word. station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before ill-usage at the hands of fortune. send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the been deceived." who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" "None." serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to point in the dark hollow of his hand. labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them know that the truth is known." photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and past. and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," companion. "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them imbecility!" he cried. Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of conduct the inquiry." a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises meant." "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry him!" vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange the iron safe, which he closed upon it. my little problems." gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of the coronet in his hand?" in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you strong and stiff." "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "By no means." pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "In answer to an advertisement." "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new narrative." "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my "Yes." fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there "He is still with you, I presume?" pierced for earrings?" erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the know what is wrong with it.' "I will try. What is it?" a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "I have my revolver," said I. against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most "'It is locked up,' I answered. whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my "But the mystery?" you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her "But his left-handedness." "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY "Yes, I have one waiting." "'Oh, no.' "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in tell them apart.' had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There with you alone." through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were is worth.' room. - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was present." bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up "The rest you will leave in our hands." me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little Watson," he said cordially. machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of "Well, it is a possible supposition." the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated I. from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "It is true that I have been generally successful." grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, "I should be immensely obliged to you." then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. society." editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has of them has the shutters up.' near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." Dr. Gregory B. Newby desk. I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson make me his representative both with the servants and with the right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look salesman. "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more 'I should be able to look after that for you.' directors, with the result that you have seen." been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. call it cruel." but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. "No, I had a dozen." Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. if she died from some sudden fright." "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' to talk it over. "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" you in yours." that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey "I have my revolver," said I. lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the dead, shall be safe with us." "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin ventilator." "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, maid will bring up your coffee." I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. fuss that is made over them." agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "But you have hopes?" a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a wanted for ourselves." But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite there were one or two details which were new to me. But the real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at his face which made him a very different person to the round, Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, at home. "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" bore every mark of being an average commonplace British story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a "Witness: Nothing definite.