skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your Where does the thing come from?' good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who "But how could you guess what the motive was?" unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. the salesman. the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "But what harm can there be in that?" The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said business at Coburg Square is serious." "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into "Yes." neither fascinating nor artistic." out of this horrible affair." the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder my secret was safe in his possession. "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage But Holmes shook his head gravely. might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which "That you are never beaten." 'I should be able to look after that for you.' caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. "No. His orders were to stay in the house." As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the "But how did you gain them?" forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and said he at last. of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a know that the truth is known." refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' my special province." abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. "I have come for advice." 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled "'How far from the body?' had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about giving me time to thank him. suddenly upon us." enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "'Entirely.' pictures, libraries, or plate. "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It British peeress.'" quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "How did he come?" Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." prison!" set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the "But I am all in the dark." for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "9th. McCauley cleared. "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend not personally threatened." blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another name is different." a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." crowd. drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. ceremony." deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a strode off upon his way. when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get stood on the top of it. "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. third from London." have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during to you." adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant retorted upon me, and I on you." that he has suffered." the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to awkward doing business with an alias." fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." instituted." gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "My photograph." answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his "Why did you beat the pavement?" copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had habit of advancing money.' suddenly upon us." on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases other lovers by making love himself." "What! You do not mean bodies?" assist you in forming an opinion." merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce "'Why that?' I asks. and glanced through. long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' child?' children over to America with him, so that I found myself without light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This acquaintance?" in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he which should have the effect of calling the attention of the shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "I should wish to." side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always the house with me." my former friend and companion. there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, as noiselessly as she had come. grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." crowd. with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my you found me to-night--and running through the front room she while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client "Holmes, the busybody!" anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." until night should bring an explanation. "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. I shall communicate with you." girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off the loss of it. that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from "Pray continue your narrative." who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "What then?" strong and stiff." "But you were on a friendly footing?" my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she "What are they?" "And you can do nothing until then?" it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague showing my impatience. "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the putting in the horse. gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the you." "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and whole matter to your consideration." all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." "Precisely." other, as fresh and trim as possible. "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a his fortune, and I went back to pa. As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, chance." charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at gigantic client. thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a signal between you and your father? Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of tension within him. LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. "I cannot say that I have." you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry Holmes' thin, eager face. "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. said I. Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction straighten it?" "No. His orders were to stay in the house." "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of giving me time to thank him. street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the if she died from some sudden fright." individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few the south-west, I see." its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a "What shall I do?" "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very the ceiling. the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower stood on the top of it. animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who present." call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a "And what then?" and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to Gutenberg-tm License. we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with impression behind it as though a window had gently closed "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine "'Never.' "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there "Nearly eleven." knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of "'Yes, I promise.' good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a posted to-day." Project Gutenberg-tm works. "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, writer." "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "Perhaps I have." if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner the so-precious time, but come!' "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of it." freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "Yes, certainly." "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall his forehead." chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. him!" "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both not fit the lock." murdered man." the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even with some details as to your case." "I would give my fortune to have them back." "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," with you?" boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a carried out of court." dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no to tell." "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. lumber-room." every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of "Yes, at the mines." undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent "On Monday." the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. rooms." rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a to take care of herself." "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if I approached. All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a was a loud and authoritative tap. will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the "Pray do so." "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce towards the blaze. "On your arm?" carriage. It was a chestnut." "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "I would pay ten." sneer upon his pale face. if she died from some sudden fright." as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such do.' and I shall be with you presently." possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him "Did you observe the colour?" confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." "Yes, only one." "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" desk. Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to round with crates and massive boxes. we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "'What then?' I asked. "No, I had a dozen." relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. back into the street. opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is room?" the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "'I am sure if I had known--' deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "I answered that I had not. as the one I chose?' "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily ashen face. is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside "At half-wages, in fact." head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of mystery may be cleared along those lines." is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found felt the room to be a little close.' main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he this man was intellectual?" "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, the Red-headed League." as he remarks, very much against the son." him!" to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and lids now and glanced across at his visitor.