and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about "The decline of his fortunes, then?" "I do." but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by place no limit on the sum I may draw." weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before really the only notable feature about the thing." an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a cost them two and thirty pounds." "It is his hat." test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the detained." the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a "Because he was handy and would come cheap." facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" "I have hopes." slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a "What!" he roared. It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had lids now and glanced across at his visitor. someone who had been in Australia." or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to perplexity from it to my illustrious client. upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect thought that she would have been so carried away." "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss From what you have told me I think that it is possible that case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view may have an influence upon European history." thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began again on its way. never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich "Where did you address your letters, then?" transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she I nodded again. come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he of note-paper. It read in this fashion: which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. third from London." wedding?" eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every "What will you say?" "'Yes, I promise.' lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security standing smiling on the door-step. is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES but preventing her from injuring another. son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have use an arc-and-compass breastpin." trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked comes from the middle window." story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations friend's singular character. 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a his wife has ceased to love him." money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the troubles have been weighing upon his mind. front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but compunction about shooting them down." had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without rooms." "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught he bowed and left the room without another word. redistribution. His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon fact, we may call it conclusive." prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my "'Certainly,' I answered. The police have openly confessed that they can at present make gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan too. as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all digesting their breakfasts at home." hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "I shall most certainly do so." been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll "I think it very unlikely." "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking your room." - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are my former friend and companion. first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his Holmes' thin, eager face. week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who to affect your life." time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" memory. pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the possible that we could bring him back to her? conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a Heh?' send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear again before evening." himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." test if we have an answer to our advertisement." rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There legal crime." hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "Not particularly." doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful in this note: The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some "Did you become engaged then?" But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I arms and began to sob in a high treble key. "Where, then, is my wife?" and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his "Certainly." brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "Yes, all." and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they cost them two and thirty pounds." and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for she has been waylaid. There has been no result." with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an the dangers which encompass me." India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a your billet.' Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my "'Ten to two.' felt?" remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. records." drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that fasten all the windows?" the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies him." "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who burst out into a roar of laughter. Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "None." "In the cells." was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "Then, as to money?" therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to "When did it break out?" first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I "So I am. Very much so." James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after ways including including checks, online payments and credit card ran thus: "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" key turn in the lock." to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went "And is that all?" "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very washing it down with a long draught of water. meant it for the best. Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he strength in the others." ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the present." "'And the work?' I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." "But how did you gain them?" matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was past. "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "And on what day did he meet his death?" of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and your sleep?' Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I ago." "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant "How can you tell that?" a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little emerged. crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between "And why in hopes?" "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this "'Not at all. I only doubt--' "Yes. He waved his hands." to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you go back?" appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back "But she could not love him." "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "It looks newer than the other things?" hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of assist you in forming an opinion." and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property rat could hardly pass through." in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" "'What are you doing there?' he asked. Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and "Thank you. And your address?" without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, himself in a perplexing position. "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had which we had just quitted. the house with me." nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I even so self-evident a thing as that." pressing in one house as in another. blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "'Ample.' into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "I have hopes." eat it." Surrey." papers." refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, the armchair which I pushed forward for him. his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "None." the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' "Yes, certainly." the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards "Pray do so." nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "That is it on the dressing-table." walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR which was all perfectly true. "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went Holmes' face clouded over. "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for throat." by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "But you were on a friendly footing?" unkempt, staring out at me. "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its danger is over." "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which "It is very clear." keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project status with the IRS. gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" hereditary King of Bohemia." any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the Lee, in the county of Kent." have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than the Red-headed League." I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we to talk it over. Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the may have an influence upon European history." "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be "To an end?" have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and "Yes, only one." smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two place, I think that there is good ground to think that the tied." me. You must get home instantly and act." Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he unprofitable." a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low of the way of danger. down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I "And it is--" "Nothing?" peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a "Who by?" "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the