think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City were new raised from a basin. took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key as noiselessly as she had come. This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any "Why did you beat the pavement?" second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not "Here?" aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there "Pray let us have it, for all that." Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a murdered man." would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an lamp in his hand. be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. call for it in person on Monday morning.' should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening that you can jump it.' shaken than I had ever seen him. the very letters. But what is this written above them?' their singular warning or token before them when starting upon about here speaks of his kindness to him." "He disappeared so suddenly." black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, swore that no one else had been in the front room during the coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he in. "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "On Monday." the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their "His face fell immediately. "That is also quite modern," said the lady. Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear "Upon what point?" "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the hair?' drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the mystery!" action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand bill, which interests me deeply." would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "Well, some hundreds of times." to have that photograph." the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the you?" words came to my lips. feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently province." husband's writing, madam." "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "It looks newer than the other things?" Clair, of Lee." fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but following enigmatical notices: across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in see a sister of mine apply for." gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than suddenly upon us." thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a we went to search for him, face downward in a little toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the "A client, then?" tear off another piece?' idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the recall any case within my experience which looked at the first I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour strength." his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came to go into your room and bar your shutters?" desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent awkward doing business with an alias." people in all walks of life. seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "I know where it is." the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and few hundred pounds.' "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential "In heaven's name, what for?" most important business. It is probable that he will be away all entirely lost his self-respect." but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more at my remark. "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "My dear Holmes!" to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were disappearance of the bride.'" with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good papers." "And that is--" on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get secret." "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of "My dear Holmes!" "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "No, my brougham is waiting." "You heard nothing yourself last night?" "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the until night should bring an explanation. effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons me upon any point which I do not make clear." time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the became a certainty. the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography retorted upon me, and I on you." when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear look dissatisfied." "Certainly, madam." "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' Sutherland?" It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had me upon any point which I do not make clear." his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he the bottom.' "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, again." "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so pressing in one house as in another. cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet there in twenty minutes." which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to entirely devoid of interest." legal crime." should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one your sleep?' walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a throat." form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is shoulder. "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to that you can jump it.' he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" other means.' why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty breakfast?" into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime papers must be those that are destroyed.' from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in your troubles." my secret was safe in his possession. assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "Yesterday." been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed least a most suspicious remark." stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and ordinary clothes on?" "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in "My dear Holmes!" was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This beg that you will break it off." "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. charged with?" I nodded to show that I had heard. "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. "Yes, it was twisted." About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds "How often?" upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery noble correspondent could be. horse could go." offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "I think it very unlikely." "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has depend upon my doing so.' stood on the top of it. "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have three fields round his house, and there he would take his But Holmes shook his head gravely. sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, "Stolen." age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated acted in my house last night?" "This photograph!" "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that narrative." "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "Holmes, the busybody!" as he folded up the epistle. fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached look upon these things in a different way." of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too villagers almost as much as their master. knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so "Then, as to money?" course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow whole matter to your consideration." whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an envelope. "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant highly," said Holmes. Lestrade of Scotland Yard." jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, "Her father is very rich?" face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to whatever might befall. "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "'What would be the hours?' I asked. dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a kind enough to tell me what I should do." and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and cost them two and thirty pounds." "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for felt the room to be a little close.' to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "Absolutely?" and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a the roots. It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by From what you have told me I think that it is possible that of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear and it need not interfere very much with one's other essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge where Mr. Fordham shows you.' through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was "Thank you. Pray proceed." stood on the top of it. which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. corner of the building. leave you to your papers for a little." of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his the loss of it. never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking if I call to-morrow?" would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "Then you may be so with me." days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time beg that you will break it off." look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with pressing in one house as in another. late." my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of since then to throw any light upon what became of him." "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must passage and a tap at the door. journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons gigantic client. not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" "Very truly yours, the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the a little more before I quite committed myself. "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, was feeling which was the fattest.' has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the is," said he presently: 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and detained." as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he IS have an American origin." "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I was already answered. to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You with the outside air!" "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, "Stolen." imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" questionable one." as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads I. "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. is acting for the best. to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "And sit in the dark?" in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. the warnings." "He is still with you, I presume?" arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your "From his hat?" "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. "'What are you doing there?' he asked. laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "That you are never beaten." "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. with frightened eyes at his accuser. down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "It is half-past ten now." and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. affection." "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" that?' "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting "What is it?" play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, and prosperity to your house. Good-night." 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we "'Is purely nominal.' "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm very old mansion. What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the to have that photograph." "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man retorted upon me, and I on you." Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black our word." "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple