told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very papers on the sundial.'" threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One relation between them, and what the object of his repeated way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he "My dear Holmes!" "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "Bought." room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he flock.' Eyford at 11:15.' "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at wedding?" has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the particular state visit http://pglaf.org of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his coat-tails." hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly "I say that I have solved it." reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." arrested. You then--" mystery!" scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which which we had just quitted. more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" "Pray do so." of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have you in your example." why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to companion imperturbably. varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of be best to do. before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this vague figure huddled up in the darkness. was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given business." case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" my room." "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he "And you can do nothing until then?" with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the his forehead." "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." over his head with a sweet womanly caress. characteristics, but those are the more obvious." especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you "Nor running a chance of arrest?" side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass meant." already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest sit on the left-hand side of the driver." servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man if she died from some sudden fright." the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my sofa. This way, please!" For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I written. how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the strong reason behind." adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped again." delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. had picked up in the wood. suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you His name is Francis Prosper." "To an English lawyer named Norton." that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco bore every mark of being an average commonplace British of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. "Ah!" your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He http://gutenberg.net/license). Pool. voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of comes from the middle window." little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. here and I will read it to you: beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly Sholtos." sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. death." done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look "How many? I don't know." successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a "Certainly, madam." family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. ill-usage at the hands of fortune. round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So him. sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it the coroner come to?" shaken than I had ever seen him. upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your "What do you make of that, Watson?" not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a be there in time for your coming." a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun new acquaintance to Baker Street. could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' upon a handsome competence. he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the "Then, as to money?" cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so sparkled upon his finger. "That's no good." "I am following you closely," I answered. sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to several quiet little villages up there." "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss "I warn you that they are very incomplete." from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question chamber." my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for "One?" hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause up this clue while it is still hot." brain must have something in it." "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire in my life." Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on McCarthy's innocence. really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless Pool. "Was your sister dressed?" Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or "You don't mind breaking the law?" future lives." request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive hour?' where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking had formerly been in part my own. "Certainly, madam." "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average "BALLARAT." "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a "'Entirely.' "I am sure." and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "Well, but China?" disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H "What have you to say now?" behind me. reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it morning." "The landlord of the Alpha." scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, answered with a sidelong glance. think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it him!" twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I row." newspaper selections." Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which least a fellow-countryman. same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over business in the City. She little knew what. copied or distributed: she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see "Very well, sir. And this stone?" "Then, as to money?" were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a "I answered that I had not. question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a the matter." "I see no marks." isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of bonnet, and went out." who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "In heaven's name, what for?" where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George "I would give my fortune to have them back." I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of client, rising. in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning you understand?" doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "Why, what do you mean?" "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to good-night and bustled off upon her way. usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment house for five minutes.' "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in made his money." Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat them?" in. analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, this man was intellectual?" Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of records." can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in "Never." round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly "How did he come?" could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in "Pray continue your narrative." pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "By no means." had picked up in the wood. it." cheerful." than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his "What is it?" habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed horse could go." "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty have got?" Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." it." "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then question," said Holmes, smiling. pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. "Then I am your man." did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was and inquire as to the address." in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon to Leatherhead. country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being all-comprehensive glances. is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our "My own seal." obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, national property. I was determined that the law should have its foresight and the moral retrogression?" Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and "Witness: I must still refuse. "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: "And why in hopes?" "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found papers on the sundial.'" fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon must be when I saw the door open.' as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten one or two very singular points about this room. For example, confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "Just look it up, then." rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a "And now?" He raised his hand. to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream upon a handsome competence. rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you "Stolen, then." chambers. went to the Alpha were town bred." "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I "How many? I don't know." "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "By all means." during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "Pray continue your narrative." with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" breakfast and whispered something to her husband. "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a name is different." and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open been with you?" why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to copied or distributed: hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William be there in time for your coming." purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced