I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. nonsense.' such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I "We must have a cab." Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "I will do it." aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest have one." "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some "How did that help you?" keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife "One of his hands." hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then union?" "Where is it, then?" again before evening." "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next narrative." "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that not come at once?" "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a "I say it is." "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking way: I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note that you can jump it.' metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most was a loud and authoritative tap. superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in Munro.' With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found own family. and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this 1.F. Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my "But she will refuse." wedding?" corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure "Yesterday." go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." new acquaintance to Baker Street. "Could he throw no light?" "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" burst out into a roar of laughter. compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the careless servant girl?" "To an end?" against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of again." very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This "9th. McCauley cleared. misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. "Not particularly." engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at fact, we may call it conclusive." front of the hall door has given its name to the place. year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this fluttered off among the others. caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both "It is to him that this trophy belongs." advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, I think that I could be of assistance to you." "I was certainly surprised to find you there." "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, went to the Alpha were town bred." which we had just quitted. "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our morning." chemical work which was so dear to him. "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at enough to aid us in our search." side. age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with it? Did I buy the geese off you?" street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down undoubtedly my uncle's." "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It relation between them, and what the object of his repeated the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with DISSOLVED. that the gas is not laid on in his house?" cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free clang of the bell. points to suicide?" though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a Holmes rather sternly. http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes she slowly sank and died without having recovered her same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of signal between you and your father? was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "Your sister is dead, then?" but preventing her from injuring another. "The landlord of the Alpha." "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all "No, I am descending." her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the written, and locked the door of the office after me. own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "You horrify me!" "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are redistribution. was used.' sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her way in everything. we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you "Stoke Moran?" said he. from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for "The Cedars?" to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune States. the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit orange pips. police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand "Get out!" said he. fact, we may call it conclusive." particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I the iron safe, which he closed upon it. to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which weighed down with some great anxiety. B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "10th. John Swain cleared. room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such following enigmatical notices: "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried carpenter." case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this come either from the window or the door. My attention was "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. Holmes rather sternly. "You are hungry," I remarked. "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a "And is that all?" really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the chemical work which was so dear to him. noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of "Witness: I must still refuse. age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any people don't know." upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant forebodings. such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too "Dirty?" calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "I have solved it." "He slept on the premises." It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" For additional contact information: "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" letters?" conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first details." the very letters. But what is this written above them?' "Entirely." have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you persecution?" troubles have been weighing upon his mind. known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of despaired of." walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared "I would give my fortune to have them back." "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and narrative." look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. true." "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat "'Ten to two.' "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no him nearly every evening." grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in back to my heart. "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" some water from a caraffe. black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, away in different directions, and I went off to make my own "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that have established a very serious case against the son of the He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in very old mansion. "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a served to weaken the effect. occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of questioning and rather startled gaze. "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of papers on the sundial.'" between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about new duties?' "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, and it need not interfere very much with one's other a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard make me his representative both with the servants and with the as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which impression behind it as though a window had gently closed case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one "And now?" I asked. "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's bearing upon the case." "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, "You heard nothing yourself last night?" to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We points to suicide?" terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence there!' dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, "And how have you succeeded?" ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both constraint." during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." wedding?" his eyes and forehead. It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "What are they?" "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to populous neighbourhood." alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin was feeling which was the fattest.' creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when details." it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark "No legal papers or certificates?" "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your "You were travelling in the States?" station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what "Ha! you find it so?" train.' "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip "Yes." of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking it." "And did you observe any change in her then?" "Never to return." all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what tell me that you intended to go into harness." winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling astonishment. Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am happened." photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of is four-and-twenty." Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I entirely lost his self-respect." twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the did not hear it also.' Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of more solid." Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it "But I am all in the dark." and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "Why, it's a dummy," said he. no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no 'please.'" will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend evidence," I remarked. manager. England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "'There is a drive, then?' "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing of Fenchurch Street." Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we suddenly upon us." discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. of the efforts of the United States government and of the better sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as shag which I had seen upon the previous night. Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you "In the cells." to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and that you saw all that I did." "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made "No more words. Get out!" of the efforts of the United States government and of the better "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties "No bad?" "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, and glanced through. drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and