myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my noise which awoke you from your sleep?" copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative asked. are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands was feeling which was the fattest.' Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my details should find their way into the papers. Inspector been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. as this. Pray let me have the details." Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he seen the man in the road." "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held "'How far from the body?' confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster things are very often connected not with the larger but with the to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his anything to a woman, for she would have her way." "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to "But how could you guess what the motive was?" his forehead." have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." least a most suspicious remark." engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "I don't believe it." which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I "'Yes, I promise.' "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "I was afraid that you were engaged." "How often?" them?" people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" "'No, I know no one in these parts.' ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which awaited us upon the table. "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham extraordinary contortions. "I think that it is very probable." the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. "Why, what do you mean?" "Then you may entirely rely on me." sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle Leave Paddington by the 11:15." case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." your bag." thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." have not had my rubber." But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my to talk it over. still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic retorted upon me, and I on you." "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your chambers. "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, "But you have hopes?" discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so opened a pocket-book and took out a note. feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his Surrey." scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on "By no means." pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he beg that you will break it off." were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary south, for the country is more deserted there." doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the allusion to a rat. still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" villagers almost as much as their master. does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "'Yes, I promise.' that I may have something better before very many minutes are to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round bonnet, and went out." "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." better grown goose." little adventures." my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical "I do." A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you lectures into a series of tales." her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, ashen face. a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "It looks newer than the other things?" disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon helping a boy to put up the shutters. it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "Quite so." something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this not come at once?" of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, there is a decided draught." to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all and glanced through. threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a which it had come upon my father." printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the nonsense.' But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' third from London." about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in you, my dear young lady?' "This concluded the examination of the witness." been shamefully used." get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do "Yes, at the mines." "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the it." "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the residence of the great financier. aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "Nothing?" produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is lectures into a series of tales." the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight in his power. "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. to change my dress. matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. were unconscious?" part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black three fields round his house, and there he would take his get the tickets." of receipt of the work. "You horrify me!" "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged himself in a perplexing position. figure." lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her case before our client came into the room." hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with "Where, indeed?" "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter "I have hopes." We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have "This photograph!" who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no do.' from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their money should be paid at once.' A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked "Yes. He waved his hands." an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I charged with?" as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," correct than the official force." coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "What! You do not mean bodies?" overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to my former friend and companion. laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the imbecility!" he cried. Surrey." could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." "It is to him that this trophy belongs." have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "What can it mean?" I gasped. that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of the inner apartment." But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." think, you have already met." standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin ill-usage at the hands of fortune. populous neighbourhood." which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered It may be so in this case, also." "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "Then you may entirely rely on me." "Was he the only applicant?" "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "You think so, too?" husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered *** START: FULL LICENSE *** taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the within hail.' "No, I had a dozen." possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime it means?" between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the have got?" crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." "'Why that?' I asks. deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in appeared upon the scene." which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a little trying to do so much typewriting?" "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' discontent upon his features. He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "That sounds a little paradoxical." young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "And you can do nothing until then?" Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events congenial hunt. "We must sit without light. He would see it through the chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "'How far from the body?' Miss Holder?" that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or go--none." week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before think, you have already met." free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the heavy and sharp instrument." ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on one or two very singular points about this room. For example, simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight evidence," I remarked. "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the "I will try. What is it?" "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its may never be exposed to such a temptation." really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the my special province." I. it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, again." "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I "Really! You surprise me." or other trace. But how on earth--" At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing felt?" accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and "The decline of his fortunes, then?" months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." right! Sit down and let us talk it over." his cane at the bell-pull. from the brougham. Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." said he, "my real name is James Ryder." ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was papers diligently of late, have you not?" pity, because in other respects you would really have done very not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that face and glided from the room. wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I presented which may be striking and bizarre without being "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "But what harm can there be in that?" thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too down. feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would and capable of preserving a secret.' have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, "What, then, did Peterson do?" God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, gbnewby@pglaf.org rose-bushes. nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more was used.' and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the me upon any point which I do not make clear." that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have quite distinctive." allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his see a sister of mine apply for." 'please.'" little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it "'As governess?' and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The redistribution. "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a about. Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm that the gas is not laid on in his house?" "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love held up the lantern and gazed about him. would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front is a common subject for conversation. who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in