maid will bring up your coffee." I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I tear off another piece?' never came back." was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a problems help me to do so." "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." remarked. my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid as this. Pray let me have the details." always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings where she found matters as described by the last witness. hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout "From his hat?" to where he stood hid behind the curtain. in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other "But who is he?" together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their you understand?" set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your have established a very serious case against the son of the Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks was keenly on my guard against him. hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" soul! here is her carriage at the door." acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new "Yes?" the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of completely overtopped every other consideration that we both skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who your Highness to the police-station?" "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and away into the river." that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried and files of the old papers, following the future career of every electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" made his money." yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, of Fenchurch Street." "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future morning." daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable "Yes, that is the Crown." of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "At what time?" we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the wall." wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative one else, I think." seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I his face. One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. the warnings." moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." children over to America with him, so that I found myself without "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is towards the blaze. "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding all that?" company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the security.' long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making works. See paragraph 1.E below. which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you just called myself is not exactly my own." was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with wedding?" shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one the coronet in his hands?" before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to strange features which were associated with the two crimes which business came to an end." "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." signal between you and your father? "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to and glanced through. *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. in. Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger the stones. he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of Watson," he said cordially. "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. bled considerably." red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "Which are?" veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." key turn in the lock." about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the at my own good fortune. furiously. Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You families. Now for the facts. retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "It is true that I have been generally successful." "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were "So I have heard." voice, changing her seat as requested. weary and pale-looking. it." "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "And why in hopes?" down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in quite distinctive." sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely "That is unusual in a young girl." "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin bearing upon the case." and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "'I am sure if I had known--' "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to discontent upon his features. man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of "'Most admirably.' absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's anything to a woman, for she would have her way." himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in works. See paragraph 1.E below. next day. Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made of the vacancies.' where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds "Absolutely?" outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm nothing with him." yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black "Nothing." been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a "Thank you. Pray proceed." chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "Why, it's a dummy," said he. every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so questionable one." "I say that I have solved it." impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would fishes. teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles forbidden door. with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end child?' quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it it." "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the *** START: FULL LICENSE *** looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling must compliment you." that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet "The knees of his trousers." had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." him nearly every evening." brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full woven round him. the devil!" down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see "That is easily got." the dangers which encompass me." a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some secret." hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very I think that I could be of assistance to you." son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter lids now and glanced across at his visitor. Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly speckled band?" street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler passage and a tap at the door. was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in know that the truth is known." the dangers which encompass me." not fit the lock." usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it hurried by. "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my "It looks newer than the other things?" there has been an enclosure here!" "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can for the market.' third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal presented which may be striking and bizarre without being place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' hand, madam?" "Where, then, is my wife?" "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their "Yes." "That also I could fathom." Munro.' "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. records." slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely delirious. such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "She showed me, as I told you she would." know what is wrong with it.' Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm guilty parties." guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son upon the sideboard." inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was in this note: have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through bell. Holmes whistled. quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a "So I have heard." from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some "What steps will you take?" I asked. I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through rose-bushes. "He is dead," cried several voices. had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged "No good news?" informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the "So I heard. You have him here?" "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my you." however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid "Did he not advertise?" I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for rooms." access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, "'Ample.' to have been novel and of interest." that you saw all that I did." town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. what do you think they found in the pockets?" "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and some mystery and the punishment of some crime." bonnet, and went out." Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My in darkness. collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. "That was it, sir." "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers "'Yes, sir.' light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands be sorry for having acted so harshly." "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." Pope's Court. Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first letters?" "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout "Nothing." answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a back to my heart. round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every