can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, "I am to be neutral?" said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "To an end?" question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our suspect him." "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I mystery may be cleared along those lines." England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the his wife has ceased to love him." However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and way in everything. "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and never will be, entirely cleared up. his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, to have that photograph." McCarthy's innocence. obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes "The rest you will leave in our hands." "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" "A call for help, you thought?" accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "Yes." window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. will be renamed. which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have "I should like to see him very much." "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent shall not find me ungrateful." air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "Quite so." a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door is entirely a question of barometric pressure." "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "I say that I have solved it." his grey eyes. d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't License. You must require such a user to return or fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the locked. "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up outside." brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door was feeling which was the fattest.' Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, wife's character?" had this final quarrel? her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "Pray be precise as to details," said he. business." which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the to miss it." "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the "'What then?' I asked. in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "Yes, sir." blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager place of silver." how narrow had been my escape. Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few outside." "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" "It is his hat." that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead this remarkable episode. as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided secret." remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "BALLARAT." for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple generous with you in money matters.' present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "It may not come to that," said Holmes. questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his "Seven!" I answered. "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be was a perfect sample of the class. could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like "'How far from the body?' the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, said he. "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She "That was it, sir." have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of charge against him will break down." It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over as the one I chose?' no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his asked. he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a "But your client--" side. "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "What office?" "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to Pool. almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass "My dear Holmes!" "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from you." place of silver." akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." neither fascinating nor artistic." satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he straighten it?" listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, "The rest you will leave in our hands." "Proceed, then." however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door the side-table." "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest "But not more so than I to find you." Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still "An accident, I presume?" is worth.' paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for footfalls from the street. twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she eat it." Cross for the Continent." it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was Does that suggest anything?" feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "No." seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black that you can jump it.' "No, my brougham is waiting." murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal that there was nothing in it, after all." when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an that I can to serve you." "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his "In heaven's name, what for?" doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the cost them two and thirty pounds." "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man yards of it?' "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us "But your client--" explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been again, where I was soon asleep. already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you as the one I chose?' You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are business matters.' had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There case-book, which he consulted. kind enough to tell me what I should do." has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "It was." at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as south, for the country is more deserted there." me upon any point which I do not make clear." as the one I chose?' there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," perplexity from it to my illustrious client. through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of weigh very heavily upon my conscience." 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the standing smiling on the door-step. a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless and glanced through. we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now the matter." his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & "To an English lawyer named Norton." was keenly on my guard against him. as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and prison!" over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change "You are all wrong." public press." shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." her also." 'please.'" very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An into the room. on re-entering her father's house?" "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." foot. sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord ago." seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' frequently gained my first real insight into the character of home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my opportunities to fix the problem. round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I "'About the same.' the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was opened the door, and slipped through. just ask you whether you had heard it.' "Here?" sofa. This way, please!" "And leave your case unfinished?" caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the without a word or a look. tear off another piece?' Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me "And who is her maid?" Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a without success. At last the little money which I had saved began slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 questioning and rather startled gaze. "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' if I call to-morrow?" neither fascinating nor artistic." yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. locked." casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was know what is wrong with it.' scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your writers could invent nothing more crude." strength of mind to control. "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small disappearance of these gems?" prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father you for a few hours?" then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another examine." to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout it." We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. the stones. she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; intimate personal affairs in this public manner." "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." presented which may be striking and bizarre without being there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a "But she could not love him." had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I once more for Briony Lodge. "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and situation." which was all perfectly true. "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his the one as in the other." "Where did you address your letters, then?" his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in intrusion of other matters." severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for you." brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem fire. You quite follow me?" You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where "Yes, the wine-cellar." he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were "You horrify me!" "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were