"But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. legal crime." back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the appointment with me for six o'clock?" 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project "'Ten to two.' bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of Mary, has deserted me." say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "'There is a drive, then?' parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." foresight and the moral retrogression?" the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "And what did you see?" ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "Why, it's a dummy," said he. were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced look dissatisfied." the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "I was certainly surprised to find you there." ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect Holmes' thin, eager face. with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have crime. person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the rose-bushes. golden eyeglasses. fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the "I have seen the police." the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said "Not yet." points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with you in yours." then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to "You are certainly joking, Holmes." Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "How can you tell that?" "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. round with crates and massive boxes. gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on "It came here." deduce something from that?" "You will not go there first?" dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London examine." retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time his forehead." fattened it expressly for you.' them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very copied or distributed: "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, "Yes." arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "From his hat?" Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the then?" for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency or other trace. But how on earth--" opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "Yes." incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a served to weaken the effect. used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of hair?' helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at such person." examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came copied or distributed: mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she This is what he says: Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such I nodded to show that I had heard. "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." during that time.' less than 26s. 4d. there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "And from a noble client?" "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I matters immensely." that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "I think that it is very probable." winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling she to prove their authenticity?" at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of cigar and let me expound." buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, during that time.' Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "Not particularly." reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first "Won't it ring?" "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" Chief Executive and Director me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, this as likely?" trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I call for protection in the marriage market, for the present hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during ill-usage at the hands of fortune. firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "You forget that I know nothing about it." lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black "When did she vanish, then?" the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "Yes." deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a daring than any effort of the imagination." from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before is so. I know all about McCarthy." out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case page at http://pglaf.org "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes fuss that is made over them." his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, "And leave your case unfinished?" sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so works. "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "And now?" He raised his hand. Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I tightly behind him. upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of in one or two places in England?' Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on works. word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am "Yes, it would be as well." extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my Eyford at 11:15.' "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society "And you can do nothing until then?" she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the sit on the left-hand side of the driver." "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I me have 200 pounds?' find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an wife's character?" so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a arrangements." "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here some water from a caraffe. the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson "'Never,' said I. "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" rat could hardly pass through." so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "Yes." footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as trifles." through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "Can I be of assistance?" "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I Farm upon the left." with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked have an American origin." the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first chill to my heart. "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this lost nothing by them." through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector take the flies, but not before." and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." house for five minutes.' Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive present strange and interesting features that it is no easy tell them apart.' "And why?" give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. Serpentine Avenue. "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has have been better. It is all right." refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in rat could hardly pass through." "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. call for it in person on Monday morning.' into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the to-night." "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your paper in the air. "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' and laid it on the table. standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the feature." "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap advice." to-night?" I asked. The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such "Yes, but only for you and me." he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. morning." convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been from the brougham. was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, you." he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was "'And the work?' much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though province." hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project for its centre. the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the made his money." round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." meant it for the best. "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his "And what did you learn from him?" general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the "I was sure that I might rely on you." must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I that he will be back before evening." it." sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. emerged. number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any into the bag, and made for the door. awaited us upon the table. "Nothing." a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in "But what is it you wish?" not personally threatened." "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while "That also I could fathom." came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will which I could not give. He asked for Alice. blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a