thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, them?" Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side me. You must get home instantly and act." description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, Arthur Conan Doyle such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email wife's character?" which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That I held the little printed slip to the light. guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very were unconscious?" "This concluded the examination of the witness." tightly behind him. "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of telegram would bring me down to your help." thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" ago." characteristics, but those are the more obvious." "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the really the only notable feature about the thing." them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it signal between you and your father? Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left *** START: FULL LICENSE *** the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his habit of advancing money.' of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "'Never.' world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." "By no means." walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who "'Where to?' the matter?" His name is Francis Prosper." "But it has twice been burgled." sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get during which he might have communicated with his friend the "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." "But the mystery?" "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' "Deserted you?" met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society him!" broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, will not take me long to tell. drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." crime." remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare the inquest, and which are worth considering." may never be exposed to such a temptation." recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an might have a private word with us. where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which "I cannot as yet see any connection." mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when happened." "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great fish-monger and a tide-waiter." better in every way that they should make their position a little anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, "It may not come to that," said Holmes. have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the "You are all wrong." "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "A client, then?" said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is criminal. We have already had experience of such." room. passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and directors, with the result that you have seen." "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but "You have the photograph?" Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the spark where all is dark to me." know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am "What of the rat, then?" matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "From his hat?" his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "Frequently." may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I "What then?" "Tired-looking or fresh?" lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in eavesdroppers?' that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I a good hundred miles off by now." a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the geese which you supplied to the Alpha." in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a "To the police?" "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the drawing your inferences." "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' "I would give my fortune to have them back." never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a this truth that in these little records of our cases which you been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES towards the blaze. without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. interested in these little problems, and since you are good table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': "Certainly." even so self-evident a thing as that." answered with a sidelong glance. were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all "'You doubt its value?' he asked. "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." photograph?" instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always the south-west, I see." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "'Certainly,' I answered. grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand "Yes, there are nearly always some there." there when the Rucastles went away." "Yes." tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "But we can't all be." and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this the dangers which encompass me." and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there o'clock is it?" Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "A client, then?" "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." likely to be some crony of the landlady's." will he say when he returns?" much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut lectures into a series of tales." Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I intrusion of other matters." brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of father's place of business?" "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, was not a bird to be seen there. did not hear it also.' It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "Bought." looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself asked. may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I allusion to a rat. poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "You have a clue?" beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "We must have a cab." the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess Sutherland?" has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon purpose equally well?" my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, chair. a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the money should be paid at once.' against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "Was she in good spirits?" present strange and interesting features that it is no easy behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the "Not yet." which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told "At half-wages, in fact." blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. cigars in the box." are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must humiliation." cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can "And I to find an enemy." myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of subject to the trademark license, especially commercial keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the your own bird, so if you wish--" "Nothing." annoyance, but no jest. slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid with the outside air!" Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with vault. "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon "Did you become engaged then?" It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a photograph a cabinet?" "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done figure." practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he went to the Alpha were town bred." "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange "Your presence might be invaluable." in his power. acted in my house last night?" Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her "What?" this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." lamp in his hand. "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down could gather together that I was able to avert another public be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as tassel actually lying upon the pillow. and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I second." IS "He slept on the premises." "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about "'Is 4 pounds a week.' Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. "Where did he live, then?" steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. tell him that I know him to be innocent." "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we upon a handsome competence. same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. Sholtos." "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being more solid." Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing round and wave him away like that.' sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "By all means." "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging fire. You quite follow me?" "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid "And from a noble client?" Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying existence." of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the "That is possible." here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your "It is very clear." along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped "How did that help you?" While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. without a word or a look. It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and "The decline of his fortunes, then?" observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, have got?" voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of "So I heard. You have him here?" of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be breakfast and whispered something to her husband. in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age and wait." "One?" "Then you may be so with me." cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a hour?' he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came "And Irene Adler?" his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting "And that is--" I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and impression behind it as though a window had gently closed business at Coburg Square is serious." first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your "My stepfather's business papers." stammered. shall use the carriage to-night." "What! You do not mean bodies?" Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "And why?" God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** highroad, where all traces were lost. jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking "In which, sir?" save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his some city in a dream. from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual "We must have a cab." very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have "He said that you could solve anything." "She walked into the breakfast-room." journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid "'As governess?' immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too second." Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is most interesting one." can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as forebodings. hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all "The Cedars?" material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as himself. Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "You have it, sir, just as it happened." business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' attention." in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & Dr. Gregory B. Newby Leadenhall Street--and--" my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among "What!" he roared.