ready to-morrow?' "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from some mystery and the punishment of some crime." look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from "None." yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. room?" in a friendly supper." "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one corner of the building. there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his a suggestive one." But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the "And you can do nothing until then?" gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could just called myself is not exactly my own." "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "It was an hour's good drive." still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently had this final quarrel? was once confined in the cab my mission was practically "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "Pray tell us what has happened to you." chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in him, that man would not have given me such complete information fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, But Holmes shook his head gravely. "'Where to?' interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "You are hungry," I remarked. however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to The summons was a brief and urgent one. previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at "Where, indeed?" "What will you do, then?" robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain me where it went to?" "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this and the colonel ushered me in. thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO "One of the highest in England." acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would was a perfect sample of the class. "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a an introduction to him?" took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they strange features which were associated with the two crimes which her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never his face which made him a very different person to the round, Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was was once confined in the cab my mission was practically shoulder; "he's all right." the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a ventilator." with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the "I think that I had better go, Holmes." in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, your most interesting statement." that I am arrested." little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall always that they were such commands as a lady might with views." your billet.' subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are "'Never,' said I. of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the south, for the country is more deserted there." she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." "'Yes, I promise.' gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran you." of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without Holmes' face clouded over. gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' business matters.' the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me up this clue while it is still hot." "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. "It certainly sounds feasible." her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then disappearance of these gems?" some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." upon the white wrist. the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." during that time.' posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst over with notes and figures. slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of business?" be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that if only as a check to my own memory." taking in every detail of the apartment. you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have Miss Holder?" was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "It is half-past ten now." "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having seem to you to be relevant or not." Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my within hail.' "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "I am in hopes that she does." had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "Why, it's a dummy," said he. Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "Did you become engaged then?" strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever situation." sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a over his head with a sweet womanly caress. "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was it." "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, sneer upon his pale face. partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for without success. At last the little money which I had saved began exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." daring than any effort of the imagination." he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile status with the IRS. worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face him, that man would not have given me such complete information there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen I was concerned in it." "I cannot think." manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied kindly on the shoulder. "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred very old mansion. the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': "Yes, the wine-cellar." continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, as this. Pray let me have the details." to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the orange pips. voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to murdered man." white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking have been better. It is all right." It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the compunction about shooting them down." "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture "Not him." the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" hour?' mystery may be cleared along those lines." upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If the house with me." had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled despair." way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. "But what harm can there be in that?" "What office?" it." matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was families. Now for the facts. business in the City. She little knew what. "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I "Now, then, what's the last entry?" writers could invent nothing more crude." thin, with a long, sharp nose?" a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and "It is possible." the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest sooner or later she must fall a victim. advice." dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "Yes, the wine-cellar." "I cannot tell." The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he bell. Holmes whistled. "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to "I am sure." finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" from the brougham. the salesman. Munro.' light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he "In the cells." solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "Your presence might be invaluable." come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and new duties?' much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, You can understand that this register and diary may implicate married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. fluttered off among the others. "You have compromised yourself seriously." "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "You'll never persuade me to believe that." "Yes, it would be as well." there was no need for father to know." wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you words came to my lips. or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the "What, then, did Peterson do?" the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "What of the rat, then?" yards of it?' temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me affair. Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding it." of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will society." upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the to his chemical studies. had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "Oh, yes, easily." is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the most interesting one." manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is "None." pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether "What then?" young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." any little problem which you may submit to me." springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding this unhappy family?" steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "'No, I know no one in these parts.' side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of "'In my own bureau.' your troubles." neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the suspect him." and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could "Has he come with you to-night?" "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life be sorry for having acted so harshly." the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open is entirely a question of barometric pressure." since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my Holmes. "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He she to prove their authenticity?" was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which made him keep the appointment." first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable there when the Rucastles went away." 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask "I say it is." Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." placed his cuttings. "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "Thank you. Pray proceed." wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to forebodings. really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not back to my heart. "She will not sell." "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." suspect him." were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, "Pray let us have it, for all that." "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just just called myself is not exactly my own." wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining straighten it?" eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every "None." the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind "And I say east," said my patient. house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "No sign of it?" "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his train.' down from London to inquire more deeply into it." their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "But your client--" America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive lamp. brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid went to the Alpha were town bred." "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and appointment with me for six o'clock?" he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." "No good news?" all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of better grown goose." "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. becomes even more simple." hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid,