overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I the salesman. one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its is," said he presently: possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people "And is that all?" neither fascinating nor artistic." intrusion of other matters." deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" happened." wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "Indeed! Whose, then?" folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our "But of what society?" desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, and a shock of very red hair. gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to beg that you will break it off." and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders gone. possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps "I will not look." cup of tea. of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted until night should bring an explanation. "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His "I see many objections to any such theory." dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of and no precautions can guard against." the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I front of the hall door has given its name to the place. gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you enough to aid us in our search." "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my the child." while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then "What! You do not mean bodies?" rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you woman who has had her own way to make in the world. bachelor.' "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, Eyford at 11:15.' settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to "One of his hands." bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting "The Coroner: What do you mean? He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be room had already been engaged for us. suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without some city in a dream. little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil "What then?" to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "He disappeared so suddenly." in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "Perhaps I have." anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never "We were both in the photograph." concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old me where it went to?" for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight straightened it out again. telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been down. beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became relation between them, and what the object of his repeated the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that "Why, what do you mean?" hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, to take care of herself." morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to Mrs. Toller serenely. "Nothing." be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "What I expected to see." "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. companion imperturbably. it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in in him." once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the "Then, how do you know?" without a word or a look. that the gas is not laid on in his house?" appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope weighed down with some great anxiety. the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." singular points about the case. What did the police think of the "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be the room while you explain this matter?" I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather window when the police appeared." it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the 1.E.9. dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She "And how have you succeeded?" "Proceed, then." "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else here and I will read it to you: no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "But I am all in the dark." though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that is worth.' said he. but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was washing it down with a long draught of water. Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found views." "Yes?" "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And taking in every detail of the apartment. "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public of fine shops and stately business premises that they really "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come "It must be recovered." know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable we went to search for him, face downward in a little "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "Was there a secret marriage?" McCarthy's innocence. appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very remarked. "Murdered?" him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. of the way of danger. his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the "That's no good." "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and 'please.'" London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and from the brougham. "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced in the port of London." customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an Clair, of Lee." his eyes and forehead. "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss into the room. suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss too. "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "What have you to say now?" conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I "Were they all fastened this morning?" glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." people in all walks of life. "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name burst into a hearty fit of laughter. them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the Street. "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution unkempt, staring out at me. one of them." wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and felt the room to be a little close.' that the gas is not laid on in his house?" used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and "Nor running a chance of arrest?" my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly gone. to take care of herself." "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom and laid it on the table. in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a 1.E.9. call for protection in the marriage market, for the present Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or to-night?' "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. during which he might have communicated with his friend the c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in confronted him. The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar "Not social, then?" entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "Entirely." have not had my rubber." nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now must be when I saw the door open.' left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. Mary, has deserted me." last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." away in different directions, and I went off to make my own 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a "I was certainly surprised to find you there." the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his once more to my work. the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, "It is half-past ten now." purpose of examination. flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. lamp in his hand. firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the "'Why that?' I asks. St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little "Was there a secret marriage?" it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." memory. "Yes." music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention "I cannot imagine." money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings that threaten you." chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed "Who was the criminal, then?" all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." train from Paddington which would bring you there at about ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was back alive. marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should bedroom door." fishes. for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her depend upon your compliance." inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George know all about it," he snarled. "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me like that before?" front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during then?" interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this one or two very singular points about this room. For example, "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. "But how could you guess what the motive was?" "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for Street. "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' to talk it over. "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, it." utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she you?' took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have which we had just quitted. matter." in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over father's young wife. crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it disappearance of these gems?" once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the minor matters until to-morrow." safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and legal crime." young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him "No. What a strange idea!" pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive interests were the same as his." advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" future lives." but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person placed his cuttings. and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. who was a member of your goose club." 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm have established a very serious case against the son of the should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from important."