"Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in "Do you know him?" he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "She showed me, as I told you she would." back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "Your presence might be invaluable." habit of advancing money.' "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, directly by questioning you." be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough think you a quite exceptional woman." however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we be. "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. paper in the air. sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off of it with the greatest attention. other, as fresh and trim as possible. "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will be sorry for having acted so harshly." any little problem which you may submit to me." "You saw the ventilator, too?" know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul waste of energy." "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in "Then I do not see the point." "No, thank goodness, she did not." "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of chamber." well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion bore every mark of being an average commonplace British situation." which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a call it cruel." wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same knowledge of the world." would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and morning." While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we "What have you done?" asked Holmes. "Because he was handy and would come cheap." as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a heavy and sharp instrument." there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east answer." someone who had been in Australia." what I may call a really hard day's work." of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag "Yes." be. the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he Pool. other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to this as likely?" when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can "Yes, the wine-cellar." writers could invent nothing more crude." need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the shall not find me ungrateful." "Was she in good spirits?" made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. "Who by?" Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily "And did you observe any change in her then?" friends, not even his own brother. union?" the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my "We must sit without light. He would see it through the seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 me where it went to?" "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "Is he quiet?" "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he "Certainly, madam." daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which *** START: FULL LICENSE *** Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up notes," he said. stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "By no means." his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open I nodded again. upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such people don't know." He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a train from Paddington which would bring you there at about simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight there!' even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, not interfere, come what may. You understand?" too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my "Nor running a chance of arrest?" not come at once?" my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. the inner apartment." battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after secret." weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: chair. view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune "Seven!" I answered. number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." shadow pass over his face as I spoke. way in." her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the speckled band?" "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before will not take me long to tell. noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian strong and stiff." "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it me. understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to be there in time for your coming." about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was "Come in!" said Holmes. including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the eavesdroppers?' high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of "But she could not love him." named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the "May I see it?" "My dear Holmes!" "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. "'I am sure that I do not know.' "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover seen the man in the road." snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor But Holmes shook his head gravely. one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my present." "'A dozen yards or so.' "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he meant." train from Paddington which would bring you there at about both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in in your London, you will know that the office of the company is "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted delirious. instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you bore every mark of being an average commonplace British were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about "'Ten to two.' "'Where to?' puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in to talk it over. strength." he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" "Yes, they were peculiar boots." cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a Lee, in the county of Kent." inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." the so-precious time, but come!' "Nothing." his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it "What, then, did Peterson do?" his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "Two days later this same performance was gone through under is four-and-twenty." waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. could go. would apply.' Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now he. number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at article?" "What have you done?" asked Holmes. writing, and yet I know it well." half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was sit on the left-hand side of the driver." I was concerned in it." his eyes and forehead. often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "I cannot as yet see any connection." yourselves in at night?" fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the not personally threatened." we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with skylight. Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know "9th. McCauley cleared. "'And the work?' "What!" he roared. opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love derbies." "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the "'Is purely nominal.' the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most "I do." that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton or other trace. But how on earth--" elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, "Ah!" of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that Holmes' face clouded over. looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the again on its way. but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything newspaper selections." the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was noting anything else of interest. wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from For additional contact information: defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. "Yes. He waved his hands." "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I are, I think, all that we need." his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." chamber." the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were dates and names. test if we have an answer to our advertisement." paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From floor. present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, questionable one." village inn over there?" nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now his face. "'What, the red-headed man?' and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me will be renamed. "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she "And I." "'Where to?' accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been could go. from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole hands. I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the a room. he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the "Ha! you find it so?" strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle one else, I think." other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking call it cruel." "No, thank goodness, she did not." the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to taking in every detail of the apartment. "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to