past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two to change my dress. 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the "But his left-handedness." collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to "Never to return." to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider "I was certainly surprised to find you there." "What shall I do?" secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net "And why in hopes?" absolutely follow my advice in every respect." He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the silent! Oh, he will be silent!' dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let locked." my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into never will be, entirely cleared up. occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in a few minutes he said that it would be all right. man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, "Nearly eleven." the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour better grown goose." to arrive at through this?" "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "'Not at all. I only doubt--' "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found "'I shall certainly be there.' upon the shelf for the interim." pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." minor matters until to-morrow." His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of I was concerned in it." "Yesterday." smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "I beg pardon." my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the papers." leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "At what time?" It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as furiously. I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the a good hundred miles off by now." metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs during which he might have communicated with his friend the "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do you for a few hours?" "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the The note was undated, and without either signature or address. I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the do." Holmes. "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the frequently gained my first real insight into the character of such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and certainly do as you advise." just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then out." emerged. still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, his forehead." his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's carriage. It was a chestnut." thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that "I cannot say that I have." galvanised. lectures into a series of tales." his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding trifles." of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came populous neighbourhood." coat-tails." shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, and prosperity to your house. Good-night." Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very the so-precious time, but come!' considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin promised to bring home. submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." have been better. It is all right." pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do she slowly sank and died without having recovered her During two years I have had three consultations and one small collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man tension within him. our word." prepare for the new role I have to play." distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. she has been waylaid. There has been no result." specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a than was visible to me." bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate mysterious end." would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had empty. not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in "He slept on the premises." the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah telegram would bring me down to your help." who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so hair?' your equipment. "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a good-night and bustled off upon her way. is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had and the whole place is in a blaze." "How do you know, then?" granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official mystery." I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much detective. Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly to surprise her." business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in to affect your life." "We have tried and failed." both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a someone who had been in Australia." state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she "How did he come?" Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a mysterious business." "And how?" how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." been deceived." parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "Very. But will he see it?" the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper he. "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few "BALLARAT." "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than you, my dear young lady?' His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I closely." "I am about to be married." And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' You want to know what became of those geese?" by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert you found me to-night--and running through the front room she compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to which should have the effect of calling the attention of the glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of Arthur Conan Doyle black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in if only as a check to my own memory." not within a twentieth part of the market price." Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had that I may have something better before very many minutes are in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've "Then the page we have seen--" places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "Seven!" I answered. trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "'Entirely.' "One?" "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might despaired of." "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. dead, shall be safe with us." I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I "The decline of his fortunes, then?" noting anything else of interest. 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no "Yesterday." while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which written, and locked the door of the office after me. error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project electronic works caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little few hundred pounds.' cigars in the box." quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." occupations.' "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know "But the mystery?" speckled band?" American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the copied or distributed: "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "'A dozen yards or so.' into the bag, and made for the door. find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, Where does the thing come from?' before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be "About a month then." fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who lost his Christmas dinner." "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, father's place of business?" "Yes, sir." I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She "It is very clear." remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the "I should like to see him very much." "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then "What will you do, then?" have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long 'please.'" of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes of the one which your family is now devouring." "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, several quiet little villages up there." suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up "'As governess?' Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' "How do you know, then?" Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but "But to whom?" the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, other, as fresh and trim as possible. paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." "And from a noble client?" nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "No sign of it?" "You have compromised yourself seriously." your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence colour had been driven from his face. delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear there!' answer." once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" national property. I was determined that the law should have its "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." "Very truly yours, five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her bedroom door." of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "I should like to see him very much." subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "What will you say?" we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a looking up at the numbers of the houses." fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger "'Which dealer's?' pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a enough to aid us in our search." "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of himself to tell his story. that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which "I am still in the dark." "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but a room. "At what time?" "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the photograph?" of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the "And I say east," said my patient. laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a business." planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the discontent upon his features. he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, have not had my rubber." that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the peculiar to him. roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the what do you think they found in the pockets?" It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full "No more words. Get out!" that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "Well, it is a possible supposition." tapping his fingers upon the table. "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "I have hopes." persecution?" "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to wall." to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate