the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the than to us. wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came touch that coronet?' keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which "What, then, did Peterson do?" Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had may have an influence upon European history." believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, of them has the shutters up.' find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, Holmes' face clouded over. to a light-house. had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more important." what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with the south-west, I see." his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. him." sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon face and glided from the room. upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the words came to my lips. with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle writing, and yet I know it well." "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him this poor creature." would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." "'Where to?' "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "But the mystery?" waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his "I warn you that they are very incomplete." Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "My dear Holmes!" someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his remarked. pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious eat it." "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three present strange and interesting features that it is no easy something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." thin legs towards the fire. save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the in one or two places in England?' "But you have hopes?" "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. business at Coburg Square is serious." glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds "You forget that I know nothing about it." "But I have heard all that you have heard." vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that business in the City. She little knew what. "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel "Holmes, the busybody!" you found me to-night--and running through the front room she me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so fat-encircled eyes. "He said that you could solve anything." "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "If so, much may have happened between." surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "Yes." tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & "None." impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock own family. shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train upon an income of about 60 pounds." "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his forebodings. same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "Who was the criminal, then?" known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few that I am arrested." delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, "'What, the red-headed man?' "Yes, it was twisted." friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in voice. near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I one or two very singular points about this room. For example, corner of the building. I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a absorbing." "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. girl said." started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the are, and they are waiting for us." as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his occurred." hardly wander." It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to "And now?" I asked. knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said "Perfectly so." and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers to take care of herself." "She walked into the breakfast-room." battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. American. Then who could this American be, and why should he "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and the inner apartment." "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, "How on earth--" what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have get her out of the way." "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford "Always." and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that the Friday. Was it to be in church?" enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to became a certainty. the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to other, as fresh and trim as possible. call it cruel." at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary singular points about the case. What did the police think of the printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the place of silver." a room. a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It secret." never to learn it at all." would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a public press." voice, changing her seat as requested. rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the over his head with a sweet womanly caress. base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be at once, for I have only half an hour." half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in the iron safe, which he closed upon it. business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria foot. With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "But we can't all be." is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to Stoke Moran." lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for of a light. "The decline of his fortunes, then?" tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." shag which I had seen upon the previous night. his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite open." Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that "But what is it you wish?" o'clock is it?" offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, this unhappy family?" neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it "On your arm?" "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste have not had my rubber." science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a to tackle the facts." ventilator." access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that of your young ladies.' The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was together. her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which "And you thought he was pulled back?" Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as affection." afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you ventilator." "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat examination of the premises, but without finding anything which Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that examine." "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. "A call for help, you thought?" Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, the Assizes." "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "My private note-paper." to a more successful conclusion." "So I am. Very much so." from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind crackling voice. is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we without a word or a look. "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to recover the gem." the tragedy. particular state visit http://pglaf.org the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as from the brougham. occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower future lives." little adventures." the coroner come to?" man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would who was a member of your goose club." behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some matters immensely." mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us Cross for the Continent." thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the directly by questioning you." 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us what do you think they found in the pockets?" "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same if I call to-morrow?" at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of "She told me to ask you." the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" "I will, Miss Turner." at my own good fortune. awkward doing business with an alias." that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight get her out of the way." "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and conversation I have gathered that they have been married about frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. to-morrow." developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with You can understand that this register and diary may implicate Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss breakfast." Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban only touch the interest." naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It at once, for I have only half an hour." "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers very old mansion. well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." You can understand that this register and diary may implicate form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and "Stoke Moran?" said he. that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from families. Now for the facts. long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and affection." He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire Arthur Conan Doyle the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, is now desirous of getting those letters back." door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to knowledge of the world." "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if visitors." him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that "There is the writing." it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is God! What an exposure! What can I do?" shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. mystery!" the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present "In San Francisco, a year ago." you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, without a word or a look. his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "Certainly." "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up "What can you not understand?" if only as a check to my own memory." "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography hands. have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On corner of the building. "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly.