License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this generous with you in money matters.' eat it." "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the go back?" comes from the middle window." massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so "No." gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A "No, distinctly professional." thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of the house with me." "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to "'Yes, sir.' and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so children over to America with him, so that I found myself without has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. "No, finished." him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, "Yes." prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "What, then, did Peterson do?" "Yes, from Horsham." friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" undoubtedly my uncle's." "'Never,' said I. "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK very old mansion. golden eyeglasses. upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. that he will be back before evening." "But his left-handedness." nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, or in danger--" me. You must get home instantly and act." you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was it? Did I buy the geese off you?" "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the meant it for the best. Holmes' thin, eager face. she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran intrusion of other matters." "'In my own bureau.' coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. the night.' Sutherland?" he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, is a common subject for conversation. "It may not come to that," said Holmes. "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" "'A dozen yards or so.' makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is have I gained?" better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save "What then?" body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "What do you mean?" "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive tail." settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money residence of the great financier. least a fellow-countryman. minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could "Could he throw no light?" white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he exactly what you advise." very peculiar words of the dying woman?" He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was "I have a cab outside." "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his place, I think that there is good ground to think that the myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable ordinary clothes on?" subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." heavily into it. Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come "Well, but China?" world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make "I think that it is very probable." pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a "Nor running a chance of arrest?" and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are cause to be." "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I like gravel from a pit.' cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a "Then how many are there?" your billet.' me what he had done with the three missing stones. spark where all is dark to me." to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "I don't believe it." whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we "And how?" through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had his knees, staring into the fire. desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "What will you do, then?" gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know never came back." disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day lids now and glanced across at his visitor. wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our "By all means." "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You cup of tea. "Yes, I have one waiting." "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. not interfere, come what may. You understand?" "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of rat could hardly pass through." the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was "My photograph." what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you "Which are?" the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the before the coroner and the police-court." written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "My last client of the sort was a king." begin with, and I had not got mine yet." burst into a hearty fit of laughter. examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, "Proceed, then." "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been "He slept on the premises." "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to coat-tails." sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' official police." "Why, it's a dummy," said he. signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The Edgeware Road. with frightened eyes at his accuser. 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving politicians who had been sent down from the North. Doctor, of the paper and the date." my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do as he folded up the epistle. cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another the south-west, I see." "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." "Where, then, is my wife?" gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking "Eh? What was that?" same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "I cannot tell." any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some murdered man." occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check disturbance in my wife." the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk "Well." pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. that he has suffered." observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, "I have come for advice." of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." from the brougham. you." 11:15.' "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, when your master had gone out." Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. Holmes. "And you can do nothing until then?" lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. "'There is a drive, then?' moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not "My dear Holmes!" "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a your most interesting statement." his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We "Have you her photograph?" some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the written. of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." "The gentleman I describe." "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have "No, I am descending." "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, you in yours." at once, for I have only half an hour." views." will he say when he returns?" "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "Seven!" I answered. most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she and no precautions can guard against." have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to chamber." meant it for the best. what I may call a really hard day's work." "Was he the only applicant?" about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual foresight and the moral retrogression?" "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." fashion which was peculiar to him. keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. following enigmatical notices: our word." destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the if only as a check to my own memory." lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her American. Then who could this American be, and why should he Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we them present such singular features as the strange train of "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in "One of the highest in England." slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad It may be so in this case, also." ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." again on its way. pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office I held the little printed slip to the light. his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet for securing the situation." quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. "Then the page we have seen--" and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a confronted him. had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine Doctor, of the paper and the date." seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or may have an influence upon European history." Gutenberg-tm License. to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The will he say when he returns?" process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and "'Yes, sir.' send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "I would give my fortune to have them back." request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other "'There is a drive, then?' to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "He disappeared so suddenly." merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." were new raised from a basin. to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I "But his lameness?" would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that "Then I can wait in the next room." "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps neither fascinating nor artistic." recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see himself. the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I the child." Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive call for protection in the marriage market, for the present grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned some place of shelter and let the county police know what has of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, things are very often connected not with the larger but with the The note was undated, and without either signature or address. those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without figure." "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door the address that was given us in the advertisement. "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any