these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of "Yes, at the mines." There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very "I would pay ten." which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." which we had just quitted. "It is very clear." your co-operation." to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "Why, it's a dummy," said he. up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in "To ruin me." matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, "One of his hands." guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible long narrative. you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the "'Is 4 pounds a week.' for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is companion imperturbably. have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then thin, with a long, sharp nose?" The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical DAMAGE. editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" train.' grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea be sorry for having acted so harshly." opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is upon the white wrist. "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an "Then you may be so with me." desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway http://www.gutenberg.net John Swain, of St. Augustine. pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up certainly not very gracious." I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers colonel looking down at me. your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest man. I know him from the photograph." and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was means taking possession of that which another person has a prior his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he means taking possession of that which another person has a prior air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to Street. "Indeed! Whose, then?" "And from a noble client?" "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that papers must be those that are destroyed.' safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to have got?" "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his "And you thought he was pulled back?" "Tired-looking or fresh?" firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to any more." professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "I shall most certainly do so." "Not yet." 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as to tell." "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. too. morning." which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the of." enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates Mrs. Toller serenely. sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with papers." "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes to-morrow." been shamefully used." so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country "I cannot tell." "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The make me his representative both with the servants and with the marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If could not have written that. It is the German who is so prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a bill, which interests me deeply." that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a roused himself from his reverie. St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be really the only notable feature about the thing." dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely "In what way?" asked Holmes. have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the to have been novel and of interest." my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at never came back." sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my the coronet in his hand?" grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. "'Yes, sir.' will find little credit to be gained out of this case." the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed "Was your sister dressed?" takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into was it brought him the coronet? week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." fat-encircled eyes. "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed and glanced through. met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric out of this horrible affair." whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is of the efforts of the United States government and of the better that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. outside." the matter." once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some "That also I could fathom." red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the the Red-headed League." I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the points in connection with it which never have been, and probably fluttered off among the others. against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a people in all walks of life. "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible "I was sure that I might rely on you." quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction light and attacked it." dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or ourselves in the office." bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at "Of what day?" man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some certainly not very gracious." the general public were present, then?" gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me "I have a cab outside." to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella where we are going." "You are certainly joking, Holmes." true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day cigar and let me expound." collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to is now desirous of getting those letters back." "When did it break out?" engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so considering the formidable letters which were received by himself the one as in the other." better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the the bed, and you in that chair." "I beg pardon." first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid sit on the left-hand side of the driver." the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." copied or distributed: should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, examination of the premises, but without finding anything which "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my October 9, 1890. evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which brought there to personate someone, and the real person is that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me words came to my lips. cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It is now desirous of getting those letters back." "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He to miss it." dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to page at http://pglaf.org "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and purpose of examination. "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square a monotonous occupation." "Whose house is it?" "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up "No." "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a papers on the sundial.'" subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the for and were ordered to this address. "I assure you that I am in your hands." imbecility!" he cried. "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so there has been an enclosure here!" never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this in your London, you will know that the office of the company is me have 200 pounds?' conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each have an American origin." thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his question," said Holmes, smiling. was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "Absolutely none." "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. Pool. off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, business." black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and "On Monday." stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project retorted upon me, and I on you." "By no means." him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more "None." ways including including checks, online payments and credit card gentleman's clothes. together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. examine." Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or flock.' been able to understand it, in a very few words. intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "To an end?" written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we "In answer to an advertisement." "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" himself to tell his story. morning." "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, "Well, it is a possible supposition." "No, distinctly professional." "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in reach." I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and beyond words. nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the and your relations to her." hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the thirty. "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of to change my dress. down in his armchair and closing his eyes. think, you have already met." "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." "But it has twice been burgled." me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he empty. "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each stood on the top of it. the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest there was no need for father to know." "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "What then?" hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat which are rolled in Rotterdam." winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with bell. Holmes whistled. "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "Then you may be so with me." across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "'It is locked up,' I answered. violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual the very morning of the wedding." friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it "And why in hopes?" in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but "'I am sure if I had known--' "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "An accident, I presume?" Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these look dissatisfied." "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated "Yes, only one." including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "Proceed, then." the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "I am about to be married." to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "I came to find a friend." "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "Did he not advertise?" vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have feature." down in his armchair and closing his eyes. standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my ways of our fellow-men." "None." "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly could gather together that I was able to avert another public "Then you may be so with me." it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. congratulate you again." about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at morning." never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send London for the present?" in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the believe that I should never have any practice at all. learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, telegram would bring me down to your help." fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by "Ha! you find it so?" extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." looking up at the numbers of the houses." you in yours." "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 chance." took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell