I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this gives a meaning to it." where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. off." ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As "My opinion is in no way altered." the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would "'It is locked up,' I answered. but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe taking in every detail of the apartment. it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else take the flies, but not before." "I warn you that they are very incomplete." knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded to a light-house. in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't "BALLARAT." "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in conceal it?" away in different directions, and I went off to make my own the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in "Never to return." During two years I have had three consultations and one small "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "What can you not understand?" him and tried to hold him back. hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into orange pips. propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do written. for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, "We were both in the photograph." attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry you in yours." note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the into the bag, and made for the door. suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the business." here." weary and pale-looking. "'In my own bureau.' London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "You are hungry," I remarked. "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some round and wave him away like that.' had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "I am in hopes that she does." "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. away to you." colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your later, upon the night of May 2nd." "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your then?" would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when up this clue while it is still hot." grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought congratulate you again." Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other begin with, and I had not got mine yet." "And the murderer?" "My stepfather's business papers." upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, chamber." favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then detained." "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. fat-encircled eyes. that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among into the bag, and made for the door. lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the locked." stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man what do you think they found in the pockets?" brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how "When did she vanish, then?" "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. more terrible than the truth. trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or Sholtos." there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no again." pictures, libraries, or plate. force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony helping a boy to put up the shutters. since then to throw any light upon what became of him." "Why, it's a dummy," said he. with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press and looked back. accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems drove away. you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." one of them." "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as following enigmatical notices: had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The forebodings. "No." "No more words. Get out!" Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, that you wished to speak to me?' London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found will take you up to see the machine.' "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless been lifted and conveyed somewhere." down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried roused himself from his reverie. a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. over part of the map. "What do you read?" with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left him. this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, the very morning of the wedding." considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, strong and stiff." remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare "I don't believe it." every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" I was concerned in it." bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid anything to a woman, for she would have her way." than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. anything to a woman, for she would have her way." "Certainly." "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the "Do you know him?" confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this presume?" social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous Farm upon the left." I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the man. fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He records." gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings overpowering excitement and concern. Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another business?" direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly society." "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to charged with?" there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about recover the gem." to take care of herself." "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining "I have my revolver," said I. country, and eventually married, without anyone having a 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to in your London, you will know that the office of the company is he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the the house with me." Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm respectable self." ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon ill-usage at the hands of fortune. came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the arrested. You then--" "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. three of the beryls in it, was missing. with you?" "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax pierced for earrings?" woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "But not more so than I to find you." several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with of this gang." skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I made his money." written. of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. very peculiar words of the dying woman?" staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true woman who has had her own way to make in the world. follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. Countess of Morcar's?" down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has You can understand that this register and diary may implicate forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the there in twenty minutes." your troubles." be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a individual and becomes the badge of a society." lips." "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the once more. "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some in the dead of the night?' "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the this unhappy family?" And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, where she found matters as described by the last witness. money should be paid at once.' cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business few hundred pounds.' "I shall be delighted." "A client, then?" Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very them, and came down just as you departed. had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, DISSOLVED. "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole served to weaken the effect. "Stolen, then." my little problems." my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that one which it was hard to resist. complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your "'Very good.' something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I wedding?" "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you to tackle the facts." "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." be sorry for having acted so harshly." other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, whereabouts. fish-monger and a tide-waiter." one else, I think." a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the to-night's adventure." "His face fell immediately. order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son not fit the lock." "She told me to ask you." from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It chair. Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who "That is easily got." "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really his forehead." heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently particular state visit http://pglaf.org "You have it, sir, just as it happened." cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in will be renamed. do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" that you saw all that I did." little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand returning from some small jollification and was making his way "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project could go. It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand companion quietly. friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the test if we have an answer to our advertisement." "How did you deduce the select?" air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave this poor creature." "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's other, as fresh and trim as possible. "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside "I think it very unlikely." "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it in the hope of finding them." advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "Was the window open?" "Yes, that is the Crown." can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no