"Have you her photograph?" instituted." southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. swore that no one else had been in the front room during the imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this Edgeware Road. inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." "What shall I do?" from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we him!" where she found matters as described by the last witness. "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "By all means." absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy must be when I saw the door open.' "I was sure that I might rely on you." of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a long narrative. "It is to him that this trophy belongs." We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had "In answer to an advertisement." confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the "Holmes, the busybody!" is a common subject for conversation. "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more which are rolled in Rotterdam." Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible long narrative. confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the Eyford at 11:15.' McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. heavily into it. "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it "None. Neville wrote those words." with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of on re-entering her father's house?" the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed how narrow had been my escape. that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The "Always." news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, strong and stiff." "In heaven's name, what for?" "This concluded the examination of the witness." train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions are windows in it, of course?" outbreak?" disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard not personally threatened." Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love on re-entering her father's house?" eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the certainly not very gracious." say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up "I fear not." square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without really the only notable feature about the thing." Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged the loss of it. which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was "What! Had he lost his wife?" Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' arms and began to sob in a high treble key. "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** learned something! Where are the gems?" With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. photograph?" other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "Awake, Watson?" he asked. maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am already been minutely examined." still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we "That is also quite modern," said the lady. was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask "'A dozen yards or so.' harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "Her father is very rich?" taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. look upon these things in a different way." "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding "'What do you call purely nominal?' absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "I have come for advice." habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. crime. been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered woman." "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I would then never go into court at all." go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw which we had just quitted. band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I article?" pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if "Why did you pick him?" towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. one of the states of the Union." "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than points to suicide?" remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching me. "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "'What do you call purely nominal?' "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was down. confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided locked." "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to where she found matters as described by the last witness. to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a cause to be." away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and he bowed and left the room without another word. "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I amused." have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before deduce something from that?" unprecedented a position." "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque telegram would bring me down to your help." with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and it. he bowed and left the room without another word. soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late "And you thought he was pulled back?" as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; nights." could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near little trying to do so much typewriting?" He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a voice, changing her seat as requested. "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked of them has the shutters up.' o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were suggested at once that there must be a communication between the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but even so self-evident a thing as that." awaited us upon the table. dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was are, and they are waiting for us." far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There to take care of herself." yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very examine." reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." is acting for the best. master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon "No good news?" time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything been." "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' writing, and yet I know it well." inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and whereabouts. was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "'What then?' I asked. letters?" young Openshaw's." said he at last. there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "The Cedars?" firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon "Where, then, is my wife?" "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY "Where did he live, then?" "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its was a lad." "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way will he say when he returns?" "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and business." "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his chill to my heart. that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double could not account in any way for the presence of the missing "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what weigh very heavily upon my conscience." steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, astonishment. bird of prey. "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. "And how in the world did you find them?" drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of "I have seen the police." handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a "Have you her photograph?" "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always indiscretion." he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark tension within him. would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying keep the flames under. she used." your billet.' The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." and all of them with the keenest interest. darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the fear." dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last the best of training." to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he correct than the official force." the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "I was certainly surprised to find you there." rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the guilty one." Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over helping a boy to put up the shutters. The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. prisoner's face. course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and "I think it very unlikely." from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the his wife has ceased to love him." the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my galvanised. or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted secret." still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." Street. may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary humiliation." Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had "On your arm?" "I answered that I had not. "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man weary and pale-looking. before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." question," said Holmes, smiling. is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. "There is the writing." are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the wife's character?" "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. which I could not give. He asked for Alice. The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "But it has twice been burgled." in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls "I assure you that I am in your hands." four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it during the last few years, and there are many noble families to McCarthy's innocence. know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause feature." "At half-wages, in fact." "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London drawing your inferences." had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, papers must be those that are destroyed.' twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." observed. article?" shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the third from London." research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do to-night." "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "'About the same.' partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the outsides of the windows. of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the It may be so in this case, also." was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready