little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic anything to a woman, for she would have her way." much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp was the fact that his father should, according to his account, screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, "Ah!" here and I will read it to you: "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A that?' http://gutenberg.net/license). front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my "I was sure that I might rely on you." I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same in the dead of the night?' "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the "Really! You surprise me." great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her "Absolutely none." look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did "You will not go there first?" "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is my room." that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been peculiar to him. even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom both be extremely obliged.' have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly "Yes." examination of the premises, but without finding anything which this man was intellectual?" them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen correct than the official force." returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was ill-usage at the hands of fortune. conclusions. cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and off." eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "Yes, only one." came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a little adventures." Stoke Moran." day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. least a fellow-countryman. manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, fire. You quite follow me?" However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. "I should like to see him very much." "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the undoubtedly my uncle's." "It missed him, then?" highly," said Holmes. Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his as this. Pray let me have the details." official police." that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, "'Yes, sir.' abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the this Miss Turner." "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and begin with, and I had not got mine yet." "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand door?" other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. His smile broadened. full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. carpenter." again, where I was soon asleep. little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is woman." self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added McCarthy's innocence. to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, have established a very serious case against the son of the meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to "Yes, he did." centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an "Ah, but I was recommended to you." you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six "And what did you see?" word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered mystery." forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! side. lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather to you." and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. been anything against him. He had for years been known as a "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called matter over." left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, "On Monday." nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! ill-usage at the hands of fortune. of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the next day. request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since at my remark. "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about on in his house." It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" prove to be little relation between the different incidents of the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six "I don't say that. Perhaps." Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money you want, then?' came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing chemical work which was so dear to him. as this. Pray let me have the details." "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. new acquaintance to Baker Street. corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and power." The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be "An enemy?" from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to anything to a woman, for she would have her way." "Yes, certainly." A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still you in yours." hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his "But he might be a bachelor." beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to "Where, indeed?" than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. "'Ample.' "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you cigar and let me expound." will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at three fields round his house, and there he would take his entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back 'please.'" "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so instituted." read it out to me." "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I believe that I should never have any practice at all. these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "My last client of the sort was a king." "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "Of Friday, June 19th." swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary this Miss Turner." "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. was keenly on my guard against him. "Yes." I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the you found me to-night--and running through the front room she garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, and laid it on the table. prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My Leave Paddington by the 11:15." Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I be best to do. hereditary King of Bohemia." smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector passage and a tap at the door. "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' later, upon the night of May 2nd." The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from the address that was given us in the advertisement. matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. "That is it on the dressing-table." hands. answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." some city in a dream. "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing "Yes." "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "'Most admirably.' two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of business in the City. She little knew what. shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "In which, sir?" One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these there!' "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect secret." towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. to a light-house. "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left "That is it on the dressing-table." "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? "The doctor?" exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a time." breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with "None." out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir and files of the old papers, following the future career of every eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "I assure you that I am in your hands." "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he room had already been engaged for us. astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any ordinary clothes on?" that I may have something better before very many minutes are speckled band?" disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no events, Mr. Windibank!" husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but McCarthy's innocence. "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. the station." Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I married her." "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found row." 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern "I am in hopes that she does." your sleep?' the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" "Perhaps we may make them less so." in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could nonsense.' "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting young Openshaw's." silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with said he, "my real name is James Ryder." I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." for and were ordered to this address. "Texas, I think." concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. "It is solved." above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little "A thing like a cleaver," said he. were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need "Entirely." "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, was lame." considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. "No, I think that I'll take it." "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old papers on the sundial.'" gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a occupations.' pity, because in other respects you would really have done very ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., deduce something from that?" in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" desk. come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his "By train from Waterloo." my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He thirty. "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There foot. pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. married her." his grey eyes. a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a Holmes. dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, "That sounds a little paradoxical." "Then I shall certainly come." expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "Stolen, then." The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of "Precisely so. But how--" "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from "'Certainly not. But why?' My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who