overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you "And now?" I asked. way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of "Of what?" "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some might have a private word with us. It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until "Witness: I must still refuse. doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had "When did it break out?" room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with the nursery. "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his just called myself is not exactly my own." you came in." without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the characteristics, but those are the more obvious." "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to just ask you whether you had heard it.' gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that "Very truly yours, breakfast." fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' "Then I shall certainly come." the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "Yes." that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as to have that photograph." "Absolutely?" not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was your only hope of safety." an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which IS leaning back in his chair. down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the breakfast?" maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, the child." I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I good for you to do.' grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought success. inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy not personally threatened." of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" *** START: FULL LICENSE *** have accepted such a situation. That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." you." though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, "You were travelling in the States?" "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, it." blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do not come at once?" fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is nonsense.' also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, been with you?" which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy in a friendly supper." carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was business." the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all absorbing." and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to "That was it, sir." rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the had died away into the silence from which it rose. week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, "And now?" I asked. the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "'Quite sure, dad.' "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of forbidden door. "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a "'And the work?' envelope. down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that know all about it," he snarled. The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the anything to a woman, for she would have her way." impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of "I am still in the dark." "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and carried out of court." no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was "He is dead," cried several voices. you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close out of this horrible affair." window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then "Nothing." likely to be some crony of the landlady's." of campaign. about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering "Did you observe the colour?" "And how?" Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand answered with a sidelong glance. of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very in a very precise fashion." sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in voice. It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "How on earth--" thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is your own bird, so if you wish--" to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple little adventures." "One horse?" interjected Holmes. "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every prove to be little relation between the different incidents of presented more singular features than that which was associated whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its jewels which you have stolen?' decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from and your relations to her." death." Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to not personally threatened." way in." "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. newspaper selections." will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "You have compromised yourself seriously." in darkness. main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My carriage. It was a chestnut." request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other of receipt of the work. she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. such attractions and accomplishments?' "And you thought he was pulled back?" Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I "And I." His name is Francis Prosper." "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been the coronet at all injured?" calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "How about poison?" like that before?" one of the states of the Union." easy-going way." "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your "How often?" coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were think that any burglar could have done. gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who future lives." nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the him." truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with compunction about shooting them down." "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well tension within him. shag which I had seen upon the previous night. the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but page at http://pglaf.org said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far developed." side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little "Yes." Leadenhall Street--and--" vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that hour." and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' "What is it?" the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That lost his Christmas dinner." "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some "Yes." Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring "'What do you call purely nominal?' answer." into her hand at the door and which lured her within their perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "But I have heard all that you have heard." so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the learned something! Where are the gems?" helping a boy to put up the shutters. we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and "But how will you look?" "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to closely." "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick drove away. certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of "So I am. Very much so." I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner next day. adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down "It goes to the housekeeper's room." framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "In San Francisco, a year ago." "She walked into the breakfast-room." be.' eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it Edgeware Road. across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. the morning and make my own way in the world.' "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. murdered man." other means.' Street. passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a tail." promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, our word." return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' it. The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. that there was nothing in it, after all." bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I guilty parties." "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." like that before?" you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The friends, not even his own brother. For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" paper in the air. "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The secret." either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "Nothing." about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, enter Dr. Roylott's room." dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not forecastle of an emigrant ship. "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "Eh? What was that?" trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of salesman. dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of vanished into the darkness. matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with tell them apart.' seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my interest. They are important, you understand, without being brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the 1.E.9. was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a some mystery and the punishment of some crime." "Precisely." indiscretion." first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black that before taking the final step I should like to submit the within hail.' you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I sooner or later she must fall a victim. The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its overpowering excitement and concern. overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he "9th. McCauley cleared. prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced there was no need for father to know." should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him carpenter." "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right memory. "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and to affect your life." George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss "You'll never persuade me to believe that." upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." "'In my own bureau.' had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do matter over." from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." to affect your life." "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?"