time." "Your sister is dead, then?" - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after is now desirous of getting those letters back." a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of you do it in twenty minutes!' A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our door?" outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or perplexity from it to my illustrious client. "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is "I came to find a friend." signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no "It came here." name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. "I came to find a friend." whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at with you alone." interested in these little problems, and since you are good shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a thin, with a long, sharp nose?" star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already and no precautions can guard against." Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a "Thank you. Pray proceed." time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have "What have you done?" asked Holmes. and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" for securing the situation." "I am sure." envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, "What! You do not mean bodies?" saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You "It was a confession," I ejaculated. any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. "Ample." "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I "'Never,' said I. was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion his cane at the bell-pull. that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize be.' not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would would then never go into court at all." "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate During two years I have had three consultations and one small estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" woman who has had her own way to make in the world. such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, go back?" while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend were new raised from a basin. could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." she slowly sank and died without having recovered her takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property in. that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she in the port of London." fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. politicians who had been sent down from the North. just ask you whether you had heard it.' the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you Miss Holder?" then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "Was your sister dressed?" "She walked into the breakfast-room." the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. that there was nothing in it, after all." "You have compromised yourself seriously." it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest "Yes, they were peculiar boots." A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a "I have solved it." little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its "Absolutely?" Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the "We have tried and failed." appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of your equipment. a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your "And is that all?" Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. beyond words. his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the note?" "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. What do you deduce from it?" 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, keep the flames under. and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the later, upon the night of May 2nd." married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of article?" "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is orange pips. "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "On your arm?" quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were weighed down with some great anxiety. "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the "Absolutely?" useful material for showing traces. The double line a little back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and "None." had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of a good hundred miles off by now." the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he your own bird, so if you wish--" manager. previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to strong reason behind." used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, and wait." found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" girl said." "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some "Yes, the wine-cellar." pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the door?" impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not which was all perfectly true. course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is miles off. "When did it break out?" there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were one of them." house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very "So I have heard." "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm morning." and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "Whose house is it?" "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "Precisely." cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention interests were the same as his." them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" congenial hunt. "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were thin, with a long, sharp nose?" Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my your sleep?' "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has "I am all attention, madam." approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the "It is to him that this trophy belongs." destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the redistribution. the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, chance." wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and test if we have an answer to our advertisement." might have a private word with us. as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can American. Then who could this American be, and why should he bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "But you have hopes?" although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from "What will you say?" "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would and prosperity to your house. Good-night." first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which politicians who had been sent down from the North. knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' client, rising. shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the "Perhaps I have." "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called begin with, and I had not got mine yet." that I can to serve you." chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each "And it is--" formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us "Well?" labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, not personally threatened." for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." "She walked into the breakfast-room." criminal. We have already had experience of such." "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with disappearance of these gems?" 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. laugh and put his lips to my ear. collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an placed his cuttings. police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up "That is it on the dressing-table." very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, "What have you to say now?" the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "'Certainly not.' upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate and the church but not where the lady lived." everything which you would wish to know." "I see many objections to any such theory." "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. "I don't say that. Perhaps." surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I is," said he presently: back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight the window, rose as we entered. been with you?" assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I over with notes and figures. might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's not interfere, come what may. You understand?" vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to locked." with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method suspect him." was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire an introduction to him?" address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "Well, but China?" trying to your nerves." British peeress.'" forebodings. London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were of a light. "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a voice. such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, "No, thank goodness, she did not." "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, dear old homesteads?" '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down The police have openly confessed that they can at present make "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes opened a pocket-book and took out a note. rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper forecastle of an emigrant ship. hard-headed British jury." The police have openly confessed that they can at present make dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, IS ran thus: "Yes." engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of never to learn it at all." in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or have had none more fantastic than this." American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking it were putty." once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at instincts rose up against that laugh. "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, we went to search for him, face downward in a little thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not strength of mind to control. "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. Miss Holder?" the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. said he. There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this signal between you and your father? "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy