perplexity from it to my illustrious client. and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round were wasted." that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. golden eyeglasses. upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the The King stared at him in amazement. and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, "I warn you that they are very incomplete." her also." said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson pound a week." "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so "Well, some hundreds of times." clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and constraint." deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the "And how did you verify them?" know all about it," he snarled. who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have kind enough to tell me what I should do." - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. hands. force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last generous with you in money matters.' use an arc-and-compass breastpin." put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "Yes, they were peculiar boots." present." Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of and effective." some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most future lives." "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself "You horrify me!" "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present It may be so in this case, also." though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" up this clue while it is still hot." convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an point our research must commence, and we will begin it by his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to populous neighbourhood." "And Miss Sutherland?" Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at better in every way that they should make their position a little logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "It may not come to that," said Holmes. wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, know all about it," he snarled. you." shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in him nearly every evening." his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a unprofitable." half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady "'As governess?' "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "Was your sister dressed?" his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he "What have you to say now?" out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must "No bad?" weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. bare slabs of marble. leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has of the one which your family is now devouring." "And who is her maid?" "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to "Yes, that is the Crown." showing my impatience. "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." "You heard nothing yourself last night?" shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot during which he might have communicated with his friend the 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California "You think so, too?" in his power. father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little "I assure you that I am in your hands." "No." I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your where we are going." "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. next day. "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock "How do you know, then?" brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to not use it unless it is absolutely needed." Holmes' thin, eager face. But Holmes shook his head gravely. fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to "But you were on a friendly footing?" had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss shoulder; "he's all right." into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you annoyance, but no jest. 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down and I shall be with you presently." "Yes, it would be as well." that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his thirty. woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to gentleman's clothes. sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his followed. what do you think they found in the pockets?" Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk for the market.' younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been because she had spent so short a time in this country that she "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" the date of his supposed suicide." results." and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who pierced for earrings?" Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had and the church but not where the lady lived." age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after "What of the rat, then?" "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know enough to aid us in our search." Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, not personally threatened." above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook again on its way. As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his "And I." scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a you in yours." "And you thought he was pulled back?" "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in "Then the page we have seen--" the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it again, where I was soon asleep. defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, been shamefully used." "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and "Yes." where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself second." returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the Eyford at 11:15.' Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss "And I." Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." "It was." "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your "Pray let us have it, for all that." "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a more solid." "My opinion is in no way altered." Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet "What do you make of that, Watson?" "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he quickly through a disagreeable task. cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a Holmes rather sternly. "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the I leave." an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, without a word or a look. in his hands." rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. said I. my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a where she found matters as described by the last witness. "I do." "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "Where did you address your letters, then?" the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had to miss it." strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the Serpentine Avenue. "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." "What!" he roared. he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from "Very well, sir. And this stone?" eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "'About the same.' giving me time to thank him. cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." it right.' copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. there." There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the 'I should be able to look after that for you.' sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing tear off another piece?' surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It rose-bushes. "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. presented more singular features than that which was associated town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon "Did you observe the colour?" "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that for securing the situation." "I am to be neutral?" problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each his grey eyes. gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until "We must sit without light. He would see it through the and files of the old papers, following the future career of every this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in the loss of it. subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. anything to do with the matter?" fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of that, and I came down." "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in at a side door. any more." he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa child?' request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were "And now?" I asked. the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she knowledge of the world." "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never never to learn it at all." their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a hands. every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year digesting their breakfasts at home." whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "It certainly sounds feasible." the best of training." me, and I could not think that his explanation of the Mrs. Toller serenely. without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." "And did you observe any change in her then?" pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "Nor running a chance of arrest?" standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had "Here?" astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a it were putty." little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to him nearly every evening." has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been very morning of my second wedding." "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The one's self under obligations.' opened a pocket-book and took out a note. thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "And now?" I asked. outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "'Ten to two.' together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense populous neighbourhood." LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I everything which you would wish to know." in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the this truth that in these little records of our cases which you then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers "Yes, all." cigars in their mouths. constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with