locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of in one or two places in England?' call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, to tell." "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the it means?" still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely "At what time?" took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the "Very much so." forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb the running down." directly by questioning you." actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "Ah!" "But what harm can there be in that?" "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "'And what are they worth?' I asked. We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but the Assizes." over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I and glanced through. the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous the best of training." our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There "'And what are they worth?' I asked. laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" fashion which was peculiar to him. business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang "You have carte blanche." I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life present strange and interesting features that it is no easy Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "Yes." walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular in a very precise fashion." - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any new duties?' "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony the King without delay." "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a way in." "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "'Not at all. I only doubt--' fat-encircled eyes. transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. "Yes." there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I States. "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." "Very well, sir. And this stone?" kindly on the shoulder. that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly weigh very heavily upon my conscience." it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "Then I shall certainly come." more terrible than the truth. thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over "My dear Holmes!" to-night?' front of the hall door has given its name to the place. "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic "Then I am your man." "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two chamber." an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do Gutenberg-tm License. ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were "That is unusual in a young girl." reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' fat-encircled eyes. had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he back to my heart. stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. "'You doubt its value?' he asked. beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." the coronet in his hands?" singular points about the case. What did the police think of the repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and coat-tails." the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get Project Gutenberg-tm works. built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock before the coroner and the police-court." arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. breakfast." "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very assist you in forming an opinion." uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." daring than any effort of the imagination." I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have in the hope of finding them." outside. "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental once more for Briony Lodge. vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I within hail.' obstinate." us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man becomes even more simple." 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was weigh very heavily upon my conscience." "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as you want, then?' of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is felt?" "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, him to go away.' Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips front of me. posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power emerged. "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. empty. "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "Where, then?" violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me my secret was safe in his possession. considering the formidable letters which were received by himself to his chemical studies. peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may are, and they are waiting for us." straightened it out again. overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I any more." "'About the same.' 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand for its centre. When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a The police have openly confessed that they can at present make that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My "Then how many are there?" "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the his grey eyes. and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" friends, not even his own brother. appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that I shall continue with my miserable story. human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our "'No, I know no one in these parts.' "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "Why, what do you mean?" I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "There is the writing." have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." problems help me to do so." was once confined in the cab my mission was practically "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "What is it, then--a fire?" "And Miss Sutherland?" "And what did you see?" lumber-room." The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a three of the beryls in it, was missing. I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I reach." every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed him to go away.' which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the been shamefully used." "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But "And how did he make his money?" Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, lost his Christmas dinner." that I may have something better before very many minutes are thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, "Nothing." absolutely follow my advice in every respect." "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the security.' American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking meanly of me." my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "Can I be of assistance?" in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no look dissatisfied." society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from upon a handsome competence. deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. forebodings. on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty "No. His orders were to stay in the house." suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to "Where, indeed?" understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now families. Now for the facts. triumphant cloud from his cigarette. explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' "Yes." 11:15.' "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she "It is possible." me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it there!' "'Is 4 pounds a week.' fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." recall any case within my experience which looked at the first of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the meant." your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich back into the street. there in twenty minutes." As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing tension within him. above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of Foundation darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the forehead. the matter." were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. your own bird, so if you wish--" done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds where Mr. Fordham shows you.' out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a to-night?' too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness in him." questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it entirely lost his self-respect." printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, gone before you can get him to hospital." the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." paper in the air. cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the house for five minutes.' have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it was feeling which was the fattest.' permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," individual and becomes the badge of a society." extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "Very murderous indeed." The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open photograph?" where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the "But it has twice been burgled." "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." had no one to advise her at such a crisis." drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. foot. "I warn you that they are very incomplete." the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only "And that is--" "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect point in the dark hollow of his hand. lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. "But how will you look?"