"That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "It may not come to that," said Holmes. advice." to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "And sit in the dark?" form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an of note-paper. It read in this fashion: where she found matters as described by the last witness. have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "The knees of his trousers." exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the affair. Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which them present such singular features as the strange train of having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my "Murdered?" himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. tied." wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country generous with you in money matters.' "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the them present such singular features as the strange train of "Pray do so." in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." "It is to him that this trophy belongs." tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and like that before?" man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such "I should wish to." you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can chamber." "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a "I have solved it." very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and assist you in forming an opinion." "What?" anything to do with the matter?" that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." said he. footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get at a side door. must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so when you have done it." some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many back into the street. mysterious end." "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon "'And what salary do you ask?' maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became writing, and yet I know it well." he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable depend upon your compliance." woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "Perhaps I have." "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" "'I have already given you my word.' parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked behind me. you understand?" broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave corner of the building. helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads "How on earth--" and looked back. another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not presume?" And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, was lame." that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as "Yes, there are nearly always some there." has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and "Nothing?" scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to should be taken.' thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of goes." "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it unprofitable." and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he hands. into her hand at the door and which lured her within their been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, "Certainly." as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are "He might." money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, "'Certainly not. But why?' from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish electronic works the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH "Yes, the wine-cellar." "It's nothing of the kind." imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." towards the blaze. "You are all wrong." "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the out." "'Certainly,' I answered. cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always outside. and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. back into the street. "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone narrative." "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can "Yes, at the mines." intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we Leave Paddington by the 11:15." once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We impression behind it as though a window had gently closed "It is to him that this trophy belongs." well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to "The vanishing of the lady." may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way "And you thought he was pulled back?" stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' is," said he presently: enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the will find little credit to be gained out of this case." last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to have I gained?" better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" entirely lost his self-respect." "The doctor?" consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are introspective fashion. least a fellow-countryman. with you?" A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there absorbing." "No." into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the residence of the great financier. a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." wife's character?" perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang conduct the inquiry." office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and characteristics, but those are the more obvious." wanted for ourselves." "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few in this note: husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he before the coroner and the police-court." was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the arrested. You then--" follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in round with crates and massive boxes. by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small "What! Had he lost his wife?" outside." Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "Yes, sir." "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had "This photograph!" arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so ill-usage at the hands of fortune. "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until third from London." "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the "Entirely." into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, be. his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, matters immensely." known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few you." the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not I shall continue with my miserable story. fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple But Holmes shook his head gravely. you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the that he will be back before evening." "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' My friend smiled. circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared of receipt of the work. number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "Yes, it was twisted." "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "I see no marks." that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder occupations.' need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature his eyes and forehead. colonel looking down at me. "Witness: Nothing definite. "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody you came in." name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be within hail.' "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and way in everything. "What is it?" dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They "'What are you doing there?' he asked. daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few against a man in the prime of life?" "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" friends, not even his own brother. "'You doubt its value?' he asked. incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, upon a handsome competence. unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between other means.' however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' "Holmes, the busybody!" "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a call for it in person on Monday morning.' "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that in a very precise fashion." for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue For additional contact information: place, I think that there is good ground to think that the again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her deduce something from that?" I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." bedroom door." Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that "It may not come to that," said Holmes. goes." "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of "I cannot as yet see any connection." casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the and a shock of very red hair. said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though "It must be recovered." Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would "It must be recovered." right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed then?" "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. "One horse?" interjected Holmes. Doctor, of the paper and the date." human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely way in." I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he Where does the thing come from?' the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to lost nothing by them." greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is article?" smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off recall any case within my experience which looked at the first you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he orange pips. bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step "And why?" deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish "I should be immensely obliged to you." which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive strength of mind to control. at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a long narrative. which should have the effect of calling the attention of the "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls and it need not interfere very much with one's other dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack round with crates and massive boxes. TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon not fit the lock." printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole