occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must "'And the work?' the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of not use it unless it is absolutely needed." bell. Holmes whistled. straighten it?" it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my "Were they all fastened this morning?" between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found subject to the trademark license, especially commercial jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and "What, then, did Peterson do?" the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad answer." voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he look dissatisfied." case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how brought there to personate someone, and the real person is door?" with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any searched, without anything being found which could incriminate furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I handed it to him. home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in could not have written that. It is the German who is so "Here?" "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were searched, without anything being found which could incriminate to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may "I was mad--insane." "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "How did that help you?" disappearance of the bride.'" takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before death." this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out written. the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had Heh?' the ceiling. deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of conclusions. doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she see me here to avoid scandal." puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my have one." several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that this man was intellectual?" unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." back to my heart. overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" keep the flames under. product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great plantation.' fluttered off among the others. into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched have an American origin." "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "'What do you call purely nominal?' "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," "Then I am your man." errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him done what I asked you, Jones?" "I am armed." fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather four million human beings all jostling each other within the of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by "I cannot tell." practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "'Is purely nominal.' out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This than to us. fattened it expressly for you.' parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this "Breckinridge is his name." to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she status with the IRS. Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," "I am all attention, madam." remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal himself to tell his story. paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning too. "But how could you guess what the motive was?" took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving "Yesterday." that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "Then you may be so with me." push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a it. unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "Then, as to money?" of a light. "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "When did it break out?" skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest a good hundred miles off by now." "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." sound at heart." to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length trifles." memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very "On the contrary, this is the right side." Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been least a fellow-countryman. you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in o'clock is it?" key turn in the lock." Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of "What then?" LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE friends, not even his own brother. visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "'And what salary do you ask?' morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is "I cannot think." than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has guilty parties." case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. "Where, then, is my wife?" in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted to some other building. They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't evidence," I remarked. conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you "What do you make of that, Watson?" "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, his forehead." muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had "I am following you closely," I answered. have been better. It is all right." orange pips. gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were newspaper selections." of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" salesman. "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low "She walked into the breakfast-room." and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us you in yours." "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a American. Then who could this American be, and why should he active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" "What of the rat, then?" behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." is four-and-twenty." "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small tassel actually lying upon the pillow. a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which indeed which he could not unravel. my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and upon an income of about 60 pounds." It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced vault. "But to whom?" their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, you." "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" "What!" he roared. chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old companion. License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any "We must sit without light. He would see it through the "No good news?" essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, highroad, where all traces were lost. in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" considering the formidable letters which were received by himself the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." had no one to advise her at such a crisis." himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell "Will you bet, then?" thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her fattened it expressly for you.' continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, "Your French gold?" inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my directly by questioning you." in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to in my life." it? Did I buy the geese off you?" "'It is locked up,' I answered. the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "Nothing." the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which searched, without anything being found which could incriminate "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles have accepted such a situation. have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day late." "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he the tragedy. his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. she has been waylaid. There has been no result." "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. were new raised from a basin. should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "Will you go?" "But she will refuse." James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a have I gained?" the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "And you can do nothing until then?" "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes along the entire front of the house, with three long windows Holmes rather sternly. "What, then?" "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, individual and becomes the badge of a society." contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was a good hundred miles off by now." and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "In San Francisco, a year ago." sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the sneer upon his pale face. have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward away into the river." Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of persecution?" She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we "Then what has happened to him?" such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. shall use the carriage to-night." would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting "'Then let me do so?' "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing "No sign of it?" compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker this remarkable episode. up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." gigantic client. "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' handed it to him. her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, chill to my heart. extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all present." dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to official police." helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were served to weaken the effect. waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two notes," he said. "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he your Highness to the police-station?" size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the answered with a sidelong glance. very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A to a more successful conclusion." "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, quite distinctive." "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his vague figure huddled up in the darkness. "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must "I cannot think." matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of before the coroner and the police-court." wall." "I will not look." "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For chemical work which was so dear to him. at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. goes." assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and telegram would bring me down to your help." brought there to personate someone, and the real person is the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of "One of the highest in England." will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin threw himself down with his face to the pillow. it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning redistribution. lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this developed."