giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "And why in hopes?" ready to-morrow?' Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "And what did you see?" it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not http://www.gutenberg.net of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "I think that it is very probable." lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon I nodded to show that I had heard. "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." were unconscious?" once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at meant." retorted upon me, and I on you." "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, father's young wife. that I may have something better before very many minutes are I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear prisoner's face. near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the appointment with me for six o'clock?" "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider "Oh, yes, easily." to Leatherhead. could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I examination of the premises, but without finding anything which "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "There are none." little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote mystery." of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a and looked back. papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a corner of the building. "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, way: and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, crime." Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable wife's character?" among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and the side-table." peculiar to him. has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most other lovers by making love himself." towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you evidence," I remarked. Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked a little more before I quite committed myself. to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, the matter?" headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he my former friend and companion. state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal said he. time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly sooner or later she must fall a victim. the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding "Certainly." would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is fled together." frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in orange pips. several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate interests were the same as his." cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him legal crime." "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the remarked. colour had been driven from his face. discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to and glanced through. sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that that I can to serve you." face and glided from the room. when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then "Stoke Moran?" said he. his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it "'Most admirably.' shall use the carriage to-night." "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him "Nearly eleven." "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." careless servant girl?" fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "What! You do not mean bodies?" "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "I have a cab outside." "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to suggested at once that there must be a communication between the that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I his huge brown hands. moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the as noiselessly as she had come. the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On "You have the photograph?" "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "By no means." Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "Pray continue your narrative." "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." "Awake, Watson?" he asked. other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "What then?" diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a "It is true that I have been generally successful." making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man "Pray do so." "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had "It came here." another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from tell him that I know him to be innocent." "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, occurred." the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third situation." twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I business matters.' low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to a monotonous occupation." my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." my room." year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned in him." ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP papers." and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the I shall communicate with you." the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a have got?" eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering meanly of me." last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE Have you good authority for what you say?" o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so strength of mind to control. quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he Street. or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his open." up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "My dear Holmes!" the room while you explain this matter?" overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater brandy and water within his reach. there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we at my remark. "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in Mary, has deserted me." hurried by. what these perils are?" business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now the stones. to affect your life." and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us sufficient punishment." Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into foresight and the moral retrogression?" "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in in. "Yes, sir." that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem fish-monger and a tide-waiter." "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It "Yes." which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "This photograph!" police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier "This photograph!" "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of closing the door. and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case sit on the left-hand side of the driver." interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a "You have carte blanche." The police have openly confessed that they can at present make charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "You think that he is dead?" "He might." The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the "Then he might have called to you?" I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather "That is not always so easy." battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my "Where, then, is my wife?" the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You crackling voice. those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with husband's writing, madam." that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' "You were travelling in the States?" hereditary King of Bohemia." "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose to talk it over. "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "And who is her maid?" could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in you found me to-night--and running through the front room she had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I "None." "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised "What do you mean?" in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact had formerly been in part my own. which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of impression behind it as though a window had gently closed had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a when you have done it." strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I tightly behind him. the house with me." the iron safe, which he closed upon it. protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project very old mansion. of it with the greatest attention. For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy "'I shall certainly be there.' initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal "Then, as to money?" Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you his grey eyes. lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There details should find their way into the papers. Inspector only touch the interest." problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small this Miss Turner." "The decline of his fortunes, then?" we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If nonsense.' it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We than to us. enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was the one as in the other." "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main approach us with offers to donate. of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide "What!" he roared. were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, was shining brightly. "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was me. Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "Witness: I must still refuse. against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary back alive. glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "You are hungry," I remarked. this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you returning from some small jollification and was making his way someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his flock.' "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one you for a few hours?" be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his Edgeware Road. "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "At half-wages, in fact." in. swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. business." Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of