"Look there!" said he. material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as house for five minutes.' my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest "Was there a secret marriage?" which should have the effect of calling the attention of the "Breckinridge is his name." and wait." three of the beryls in it, was missing. "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small could go. "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden you in your example." bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a round with crates and massive boxes. open." to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been "Will you go?" enter into my head. however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the long narrative. a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that "But who is he?" certainly do as you advise." dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, "You have a clue?" "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my is acting for the best. Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. been deceived." Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest she used." find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its in this note: away to you." plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "A confidential servant?" again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. I leave." name is different." seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, so far?" would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a with the outside air!" search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. "None." Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate directors, with the result that you have seen." enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's said I. the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present questioning and rather startled gaze. Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. "In San Francisco, a year ago." The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "Your presence might be invaluable." that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my "The doctor?" From what you have told me I think that it is possible that flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the careless servant girl?" the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you time." "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker the side-table." besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in http://www.gutenberg.net leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about danger is over." you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which examine." Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife is four-and-twenty." Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about you for a few hours?" "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb society." and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for "But your client--" "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody the window, rose as we entered. resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and I leave." Have you good authority for what you say?" "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency good-night and bustled off upon her way. himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was "And Irene Adler?" "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. go--none." about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To gentleman's clothes. fatally injured? "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. thin, with a long, sharp nose?" man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 Does that suggest anything?" key turn in the lock." I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." "You are all wrong." examine." weapon." strength in the others." in him." shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He vague figure huddled up in the darkness. the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I be best to do. grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the fishes. Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a lumber-room." fattened it expressly for you.' "Yesterday." he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the "None." exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took man. I know him from the photograph." weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might him and tried to hold him back. "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing ourselves in the office." "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, nice household for a young lady." steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can "Which are?" "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." instincts rose up against that laugh. year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project "'Certainly,' I answered. one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are important." recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into suspect him." and put his glass in his pocket. 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm said Mr. Holder. "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a room. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this "Well, some hundreds of times." "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter "Yes, from Horsham." will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR "Who by?" "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." enough to aid us in our search." along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped vanished into the darkness. certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project Heh?' he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it habit of advancing money.' our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "It certainly sounds feasible." he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, this poor creature." train from Paddington which would bring you there at about I shall continue with my miserable story. "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium "And it is--" 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "How did that help you?" anything to a woman, for she would have her way." during which he might have communicated with his friend the problems help me to do so." voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs danger is over." before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp "And what did you see?" "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window all-comprehensive glances. "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily and prosperity to your house. Good-night." in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of would apply.' much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I The King stared at him in amazement. "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely "The Coroner: What do you mean? I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the "Pray do so." I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known yet." "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he "And why?" It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had joking. so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice do you make of it all?" "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of Again Holmes raved in the air. (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my power." "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew secret." had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave to go into your room and bar your shutters?" started for the Temple to see my husband. behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, breakfast and whispered something to her husband. tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his "Were they all fastened this morning?" mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, which our visitor detailed to us. matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' your co-operation." "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' retorted upon me, and I on you." "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day that he has suffered." The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that reach." connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and "It's nothing of the kind." Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very "The gentleman I describe." Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO "I shall most certainly do so." "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass and wait." with you alone." set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk face and glided from the room. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and "No." is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, three of the beryls in it, was missing. transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to suggested at once that there must be a communication between the course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with brought there to personate someone, and the real person is her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little Surrey." Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low when you have done it." much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly from you?" be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, fuss that is made over them." "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the "Oh, fresh and glossy." adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." "May I see it?" sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close the window, rose as we entered.