"Yes, sir." arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." advice." betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "My private note-paper." ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in the little opening for the ventilator is." I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "And the cigar-holder?" it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must "No?" "I assure you that I am in your hands." destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair "Precisely so. But how--" "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "It goes to the housekeeper's room." matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. intrusion of other matters." get her out of the way." "I was afraid that you were engaged." red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you mystery!" people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "What then?" spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous fear." cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little his wife has ceased to love him." way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in this man was intellectual?" when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at "My opinion is in no way altered." promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting gigantic client. have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still look dissatisfied." will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian roused himself from his reverie. forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, "Precisely." Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for the address that was given us in the advertisement. red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his "'As governess?' "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." "And for present expenses?" The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort both be extremely obliged.' last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this joking. was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me "The gentleman I describe." lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "And you thought he was pulled back?" "How do you know, then?" had no one to advise her at such a crisis." has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the "I am still in the dark." credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No prisoner's face. rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and room had already been engaged for us. learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon "Will you go?" decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his face and glided from the room. half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to copied or distributed: bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and question," said Holmes, smiling. the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the "VIOLET HUNTER." gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly "He said too much." Project Gutenberg-tm works. "Yes, only one." "You have carte blanche." this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will "How often?" propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these nice household for a young lady." "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was as he remarks, very much against the son." strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a matter over." "How did you trace it, then?" parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been handed it to him. same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are But Holmes shook his head gravely. with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we "And what did you learn from him?" he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, who was a member of your goose club." leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was business at Coburg Square is serious." It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, "Yes." them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo unclasping of his long thin hands. you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back not, dad?" she asked. "By train from Waterloo." "In answer to an advertisement." overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran in your London, you will know that the office of the company is thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and gives a meaning to it." want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it or in danger--" could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my ago." occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had important." "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the face and glided from the room. "'I have already given you my word.' and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "I will get her to show me." had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help in my life." "None." tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, records." the date of his supposed suicide." platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an "There is the writing." reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone formed some opinion?" in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the said he at last. suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether "I shall be delighted." "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is appeared upon the scene." into the room. "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he anything to a woman, for she would have her way." noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and weapon." "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties place no limit on the sum I may draw." address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote "I will not look." "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to and your relations to her." not fit the lock." Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he meant." "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper whole matter to your consideration." thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this furiously. understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." and the colonel ushered me in. feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had "You forget that I know nothing about it." which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended "In what way?" asked Holmes. 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered "I cannot as yet see any connection." his fortune, and I went back to pa. ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. "Can I be of assistance?" her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very "I warn you that they are very incomplete." Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" silent! Oh, he will be silent!' had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. hands. brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for any." have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us absorbing." she has been waylaid. There has been no result." still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other "There are none." was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. our word." "'Never,' said I. should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the "And sit in the dark?" understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened there in twenty minutes." am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at "'Is 4 pounds a week.' reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "Yes, from Horsham." The summons was a brief and urgent one. generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it opened a pocket-book and took out a note. tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue as this. Pray let me have the details." alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the individual and becomes the badge of a society." had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and "And you don't know his address?" have been better. It is all right." agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have newspaper selections." "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all will be renamed. "But who is he?" in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the "I was sure that I might rely on you." "I warn you that they are very incomplete." purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for carpenter." every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; you in your example." "That is easily got." it. company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, and the colonel ushered me in. which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the Again Holmes raved in the air. Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a back alive. understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "Well, it is a possible supposition." "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. quick march!" in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, "Yesterday." Sutherland. her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy served to weaken the effect. wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. retorted upon me, and I on you." building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches not, dad?" she asked. black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who occupations.' down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered dates and names. Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the brought there to personate someone, and the real person is my little problems." "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "That is also quite modern," said the lady. reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign nice household for a young lady." answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, certainly not very gracious." "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold the coronet in his hands?" of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his "I should like to see him very much." "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called ashen face. searched, without anything being found which could incriminate self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make acquaintance?" it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "Very murderous indeed." would apply.' "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "In San Francisco, a year ago." and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties with some details as to your case." incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of "Then I do not see the point." "Not particularly." can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly