"No." "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the call you and give you the chance." "And why in hopes?" that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if The telegram which we eventually received came late one night agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody some terrible trap for her." the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, pound a week." continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "My private note-paper." "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you infinite languor in his face. the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly him. woman who has had her own way to make in the world. cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a his wife has ceased to love him." "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, of campaign. perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "Then he might have called to you?" I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been crime." clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high "I know where it is." about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, down. "'Then let me do so?' doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for his huge brown hands. the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich "'I am sure if I had known--' send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the "So I heard. You have him here?" "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper IS will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by footfalls from the street. redistribution. "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" bell. Holmes whistled. drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly as noiselessly as she had come. "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be miles off. outsides of the windows. matter over." made his money." Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain bare slabs of marble. "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the "'And what are they worth?' I asked. "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my were wasted." her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. vague figure huddled up in the darkness. in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, lumber-room." again on its way. How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to villagers almost as much as their master. came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds Doctor, of the paper and the date." Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. highroad, where all traces were lost. very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried was once confined in the cab my mission was practically direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each became a certainty. "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "But we can't all be." not, dad?" she asked. of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the British peeress.'" Eyford." ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon up this clue while it is still hot." wife's character?" above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old compunction about shooting them down." "Ah, but I was recommended to you." "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated "Nearly eleven." minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as over here." "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross what I may call a really hard day's work." tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly opportunities to fix the problem. experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from "'I am sure that I do not know.' which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it pressing in one house as in another. away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a breakfast?" get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. yards of it?' was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt suggested at once that there must be a communication between the which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last "About a month then." much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that the Assizes." "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "So it appears." neither fascinating nor artistic." in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the telegram would bring me down to your help." "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax not, dad?" she asked. he bowed and left the room without another word. always that they were such commands as a lady might with over with notes and figures. off." one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed "What?" sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. question," said Holmes, smiling. daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "'What, the red-headed man?' deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project round and wave him away like that.' himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning populous neighbourhood." death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." "'I am sure if I had known--' "Very well, sir. And this stone?" been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's "'Which dealer's?' in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and Heh?' go back?" papers diligently of late, have you not?" come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his careless servant girl?" higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the assist you in forming an opinion." "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right acquaintance?" the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the which I could not give. He asked for Alice. Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been yourselves in at night?" hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged I nodded again. papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a intrusion of other matters." did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion just called myself is not exactly my own." "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in overpowering excitement and concern. "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, that "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and leave you to your papers for a little." conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the "A client, then?" They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." "But your client--" "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "And you don't know his address?" of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left matter." returning from some small jollification and was making his way be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to than to us. at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment been shamefully used." lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, father's place of business?" Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There "Precisely so. But how--" and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." "The landlord of the Alpha." upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue "What shall I do?" were unconscious?" the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found "And sit in the dark?" least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "That you are never beaten." me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind miles off. "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my is," said he presently: or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my Clair, of Lee." other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "Not in the least." "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of the loss of it. entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should "Then the page we have seen--" a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there so far?" "Then what has happened to him?" "He might." the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your easy-going way." beyond words. ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were "Then I shall certainly come." "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to money should be paid at once.' is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the them present such singular features as the strange train of our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "And you thought he was pulled back?" himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" just called myself is not exactly my own." a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this I approached. fact, we may call it conclusive." half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still "Then, as to money?" shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet never will be, entirely cleared up. whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said matter over." gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as placed his cuttings. creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise had formerly been in part my own. feature." knowledge of the world." morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them she slowly sank and died without having recovered her "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would never came back." to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with six. Come in!" had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson better in every way that they should make their position a little to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. "So it appears." enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and said I. in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed "But his left-handedness." prison!" landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "I will try. What is it?" back into the street. English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been Edgeware Road. "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and "It is his hat." sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It trying to your nerves." constraint." hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in lectures into a series of tales." woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight "'Certainly,' I answered. Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent taking in every detail of the apartment. "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his you, my dear young lady?' was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and infinite languor in his face. appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's returned to France?" out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she she slowly sank and died without having recovered her "I will not look." with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the "'Is 4 pounds a week.' "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our a little more before I quite committed myself. pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project business matters.' "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It "It is true that I have been generally successful." the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became Clair, of Lee." remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, business." "It was a confession," I ejaculated. interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is o'clock is it?" the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six "And what then?" believe that I should never have any practice at all. coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the round with crates and massive boxes. enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, behind me. noting anything else of interest. Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of might help us?" seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that amused."