seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, open." "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "From his hat?" the devil!" return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." writing, and yet I know it well." silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into "What! Had he lost his wife?" "'What are you doing there?' he asked. "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the gone before you can get him to hospital." his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with new duties?' rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do read over the extraordinary announcement. of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it beg that you will break it off." appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little "I cannot imagine." among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this "I was mad--insane." and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "'Which dealer's?' showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. from the brougham. but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest Holmes' face clouded over. Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" thin, with a long, sharp nose?" worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. that I can to serve you." police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington infinite languor in his face. behind me. pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "Texas, I think." the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "Perhaps we may make them less so." always that they were such commands as a lady might with fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been "It is true that I have been generally successful." bed dies. Does not that strike you?" where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was not come at once?" Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he "Yes." the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest mystery!" the Friday. Was it to be in church?" But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for investigation." "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if comes from the middle window." to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled to surprise her." "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback away in different directions, and I went off to make my own floor. disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the "It certainly sounds feasible." get her out of the way." that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." "Now, then, what's the last entry?" pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the "'Oh, no.' broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a man. waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his "Pray do so." "Yes, there are nearly always some there." spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of Holmes' face clouded over. when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father there were one or two details which were new to me. But the during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was three fields round his house, and there he would take his "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness rat could hardly pass through." covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" arrangements." conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. "You saw the ventilator, too?" have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted about here speaks of his kindness to him." "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you "Yes." me." recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in bedroom door." after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a "I don't say that. Perhaps." than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and round and wave him away like that.' returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear death." force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, This is what he says: has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic 1.E.9. narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? one's self under obligations.' propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, "How on earth--" "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last "Yes." gone. branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who as noiselessly as she had come. outbreak?" his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. "Your presence might be invaluable." refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it roused himself from his reverie. second." points in connection with it which never have been, and probably Stoke Moran." stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. during which he might have communicated with his friend the you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "My dear Holmes!" be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change out of this horrible affair." chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "'I shall certainly be there.' "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for forebodings. sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my important." "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "That was it, sir." who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards know all about it," he snarled. could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" other lovers by making love himself." gone before you can get him to hospital." particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the you in yours." It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then with frightened eyes at his accuser. "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin "Perfectly so." more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit several quiet little villages up there." purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were them?" "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much acquaintance?" tell him that I know him to be innocent." generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, "A call for help, you thought?" a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "It is half-past ten now." and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad "No." Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. front of the hall door has given its name to the place. That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to closely." "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, 1.F. cigars in the box." "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, been with you?" the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone presented which may be striking and bizarre without being them, and came down just as you departed. sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I she to prove their authenticity?" pierced for earrings?" one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, joking. the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might heavy and sharp instrument." should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend closing the door. or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "That you are never beaten." have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he over part of the map. "What do you read?" absolutely follow my advice in every respect." "Why serious?" that you saw all that I did." DISSOLVED. "Always." Heh?' very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two society." and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the touch that coronet?' "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. hour." owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." to-morrow." "Yes." everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' this poor creature." "To an end?" Eyford at 11:15.' gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at retorted upon me, and I on you." prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock "Yes, he did." "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be leaning back in his chair. "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his down from London to inquire more deeply into it." which are rolled in Rotterdam." His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I pressing in one house as in another. his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." returning from some small jollification and was making his way waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to that you saw all that I did." "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he bare slabs of marble. "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this "Oh, yes, easily." several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. outbreak?" the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable do." "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ down from London to inquire more deeply into it." chamber." "Not I." "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is forecastle of an emigrant ship. his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid telegram would bring me down to your help." that the gas is not laid on in his house?" "Get out!" said he. records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in gone. "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on sufficient punishment." knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. "In heaven's name, what for?" knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his "Nearly eleven." you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe them present such singular features as the strange train of