his huge brown hands. "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is pound a week." Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There business." Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard guilty parties." "And now?" I asked. comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his whole matter to your consideration." with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." "Where to?" not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my geese which you supplied to the Alpha." your Highness to the police-station?" self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of of note-paper. It read in this fashion: effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, "His face fell immediately. Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a prisoner's face. my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to bears upon the case?" It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to bore every mark of being an average commonplace British extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary she slowly sank and died without having recovered her seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me had this final quarrel? arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look "And how have you succeeded?" as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that and put his glass in his pocket. "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to "But how did you gain them?" One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an this Miss Turner." all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if there was no need for father to know." "9th. McCauley cleared. came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been morning." yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "Was she in good spirits?" "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This purpose equally well?" neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you extraordinary contortions. inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. "No. His orders were to stay in the house." I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I "Eh? What was that?" young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the with frightened eyes at his accuser. about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your like gravel from a pit.' had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss "Was your sister dressed?" there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no maid will bring up your coffee." that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in Sutherland?" in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest is four-and-twenty." where Mr. Fordham shows you.' our word." I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "None." The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that place no limit on the sum I may draw." It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to away into the river." collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" been lifted and conveyed somewhere." the dangers which encompass me." his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of the ceiling. slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' "Nothing?" works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed "Your presence might be invaluable." the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. me upon any point which I do not make clear." son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation "A call for help, you thought?" the night.' "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in What do you deduce from it?" "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet habit of advancing money.' cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his "What do you make of that, Watson?" the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it For additional contact information: doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. one of the states of the Union." returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for During two years I have had three consultations and one small understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the noble correspondent could be. across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet there in twenty minutes." "My dear Holmes!" the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open "What will you do, then?" along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. views." Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, indeed happy." without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence something of him before." "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, "Not in a good cause." "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what Holmes rather sternly. "ARAT," I read. other, as fresh and trim as possible. Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. strange features which were associated with the two crimes which never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a "I think that I had better go, Holmes." morning." us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate into her hand at the door and which lured her within their excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his crowd. set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to "'Ten to two.' sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of disturbance in my wife." sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "Have you her photograph?" SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "Then what has happened to him?" the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something morning." metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the gigantic client. that threaten you." only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which directors, with the result that you have seen." turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a again before evening." say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she "Was she in good spirits?" between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. three of the beryls in it, was missing. arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be despaired of." International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and "But how did you gain them?" nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." death." lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you in darkness. the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. child?' "But how?" "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each "But you were on a friendly footing?" man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." vanished into the darkness. and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a "One horse?" interjected Holmes. conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his Again Holmes raved in the air. this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute this as likely?" I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of shall not find me ungrateful." Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or death." so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is forecastle of an emigrant ship. Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" few hundred pounds.' "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in tightly behind him. England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that "I would pay ten." Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to subject to the trademark license, especially commercial It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my Sutherland. "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the deduce something from that?" "No, thank goodness, she did not." The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight "Married! When?" "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander "You have but to name it." and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no "It goes to the housekeeper's room." "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have "'And the work?' tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp "By no means." though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to "Game for a morning drive?" and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then served to weaken the effect. you give your casting vote to?" "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge McCarthy's innocence. and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching His smile broadened. paper in the air. There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, clang of the bell. daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come residence of the great financier. "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds empty. were wasted." "Holmes, the busybody!" chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling the running down." male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then said he. paper in the air. "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible "And how?" have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever learned something! Where are the gems?" again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "What! Had he lost his wife?" "I cannot say that I have." inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say