The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so colour had been driven from his face. he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing "And why in hopes?" pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon the so-precious time, but come!' face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and reach." "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, "I never have." these bleak autumnal evenings." I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop there in twenty minutes." of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be them, and came down just as you departed. over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable "So it appears." sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. quite distinctive." Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for sit on the left-hand side of the driver." woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow like that before?" disappearance of these gems?" set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. could not have written that. It is the German who is so "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are her also." hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. purpose of examination. can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the for its centre. "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical could not account in any way for the presence of the missing behind me. already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed Stoke Moran." sake, don't!" held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he chambers. "Certainly." "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure third from London." shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "That is unusual in a young girl." Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to into her hand at the door and which lured her within their visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how here." While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the he bowed and left the room without another word. "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took more solid." eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears assist you in forming an opinion." possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking "And help." a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the approach us with offers to donate. him to go away.' "'I am sure that I do not know.' "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. "Yes." tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey some mystery and the punishment of some crime." far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob and no precautions can guard against." and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." you, my dear young lady?' which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as married her." paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. "My last client of the sort was a king." test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a are, and they are waiting for us." Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I business matters.' style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "How often?" upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. skylight. woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she foot. and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress next day. how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the "Not particularly." upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would "You think that he is dead?" hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client "No, but the enclosure is." "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have man. I know him from the photograph." collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such "What! You do not mean bodies?" shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. problems help me to do so." four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are politicians who had been sent down from the North. "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the you?" the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand "I see no marks." position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air own family. you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our "No more words. Get out!" reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty helping a boy to put up the shutters. We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short "I say that I have solved it." clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise "But I am all in the dark." "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the You want to know what became of those geese?" Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally "How often?" "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem acquaintance?" family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of sofa. This way, please!" surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I observed. Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring the date of his supposed suicide." down from London to inquire more deeply into it." "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his "To an English lawyer named Norton." Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My subject to the trademark license, especially commercial She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is dead, shall be safe with us." "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "Nothing." three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was spark where all is dark to me." walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. really the only notable feature about the thing." station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a there has been an enclosure here!" the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. into the room. perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he the very morning of the wedding." him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point galvanised. "Was he the only applicant?" paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I maid will bring up your coffee." "It goes to the housekeeper's room." in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "VIOLET HUNTER." remarked. "Holmes, the busybody!" PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "Why did you pick him?" have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very to change my dress. from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary unprofitable." colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do through." with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and "'Ample.' Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to becomes even more simple." "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever "Then I do not see the point." He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he carpenter." over part of the map. "What do you read?" you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And "'Is 4 pounds a week.' believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. "'Certainly not.' question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the matters immensely." cost them two and thirty pounds." "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" anything to do with the matter?" "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "Stolen, then." and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, "So it appears." "'What, the red-headed man?' triumphant cloud from his cigarette. make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry crime." "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at three of the beryls in it, was missing. the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different been lifted and conveyed somewhere." "No, thank goodness, she did not." gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears "You know me, then?" coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the a monotonous occupation." "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in back to my heart. he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the Foundation Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp weighed down with some great anxiety. "And I say east," said my patient. her also." have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "Then, as to money?" brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had "How did you trace it, then?" ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly again on its way. vanished into the darkness. Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. think, you have already met." overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I legal crime." "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. and looked back. unkempt, staring out at me. into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more have established a very serious case against the son of the beyond words. "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "How on earth--" attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements fled together." someone who had been in Australia." of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and "She told me to ask you." rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, was it brought him the coronet? "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, he. "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." papers must be those that are destroyed.' Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no electronic works familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful crime." assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "Witness: It was. 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or to-night?' "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" and have this put in the evening papers." formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's "Never." front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes that you can jump it.' "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very "'What are you doing there?' he asked. to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "Yes, he did." directors, with the result that you have seen." said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord has little to do with my story." the coronet in his hands?" "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business Dr. Gregory B. Newby should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the some water from a caraffe. that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. it were putty." his wife has ceased to love him." "Where is it, then?" "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of asked with his eyes open. behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped of your young ladies.' the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put make me his representative both with the servants and with the freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would ready to-morrow?' "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. think that any burglar could have done. "Then what has happened to him?" you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders very morning of my second wedding." concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me it means?" "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." hair?' away to you." there in twenty minutes." "Why, it's a dummy," said he. it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose,