eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, where we are going." weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah "And you thought he was pulled back?" "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. "And how did you verify them?" delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. For additional contact information: the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "It is possible." seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare my room." many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments "'What do you call purely nominal?' "Do you go out much in society?" deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, wedding?" Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "It is very kind of you." nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa his face which made him a very different person to the round, mysterious end." and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What "'Yes, it was gone.' month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who strange features which were associated with the two crimes which been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master "Ten will be early enough." respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in entirely lost his self-respect." "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this Leadenhall Street--and--" the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal intimate personal affairs in this public manner." I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood the side-table." schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little she to prove their authenticity?" to-night?' of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to heavily into it. if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! few hundred pounds.' last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself works. "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows to miss it." shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit breakfast?" "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, there." the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, the address that was given us in the advertisement. "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you strong and stiff." "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." noise which awoke you from your sleep?" take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. works. "And when will you call?" "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," suspect him." "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance "But she will refuse." "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. eavesdroppers?' extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible entirely devoid of interest." "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" "I should be immensely obliged to you." house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, father's young wife. was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, "It was." Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "Ha! you find it so?" was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible not, dad?" she asked. to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. "Not particularly." "What can you not understand?" it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors "It is to him that this trophy belongs." "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel "But you can know nothing of this?" "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas "So I have heard." on re-entering her father's house?" which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "I think that I had better go, Holmes." better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." have one." "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." and the whole place is in a blaze." puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that "And for present expenses?" probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have the room while you explain this matter?" power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our not within a twentieth part of the market price." "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I tear off another piece?' silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see "Very. But will he see it?" the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. over with notes and figures. of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on new acquaintance to Baker Street. right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps "And you thought he was pulled back?" noting anything else of interest. deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon "Nothing?" and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back best detective that ever lived. "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all "How about poison?" As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. you." Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom galvanised. "Perhaps I have." that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; footfalls from the street. deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his companion. accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw For additional contact information: employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, http://www.gutenberg.net friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. until night should bring an explanation. fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. "Yes." however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored For additional contact information: convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" any little problem which you may submit to me." foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection and glanced through. enter into my head. skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I "You think so, too?" habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It Count Von Kramm." conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were all-comprehensive glances. read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the away in different directions, and I went off to make my own Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. to Leatherhead. along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of populous neighbourhood." "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project my little problems." butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, started for the Temple to see my husband. brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the my friend's incisive reasoning. left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. should be taken.' note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." with her." deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "The knees of his trousers." wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a points in connection with it which never have been, and probably "Imitated." august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, "The knees of his trousers." southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace went to the Alpha were town bred." waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both ordinary clothes on?" The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen recall any case within my experience which looked at the first than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This "And what then?" have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, where she found matters as described by the last witness. repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she "It may not come to that," said Holmes. tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." to some other building. me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so "Then he might have called to you?" her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third I took the paper from him and read as follows: gigantic client. laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he standing smiling on the door-step. feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To "But how?" and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom "I will do it." months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "It came here." towards the blaze. The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted "It is to him that this trophy belongs." Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike way in." "Indeed! Whose, then?" mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I nothing of it?" that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now fuss that is made over them." propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would troubles have been weighing upon his mind. with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the head. So long, then!" "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek villagers almost as much as their master. burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in "Of what day?" were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two prison!" understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between very old mansion. "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black "'What are you doing there?' he asked. she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then right! Sit down and let us talk it over." glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding the driver. since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a begun to whiten, even as mine has." The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of go back?" "What shall I do?" "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the his forehead." "No." that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to served to weaken the effect. "My dear Holmes!" always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "Precisely." pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the a monotonous occupation." note?" points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of door?" "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just "Absolutely?" which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a some city in a dream. so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point your sleep?' after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I nights." time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the observed. of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. you." chill to my heart. approach us with offers to donate. before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or and all of them with the keenest interest. Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small three fields round his house, and there he would take his weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get noble correspondent could be. Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out that I can to serve you." dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your "I will get her to show me." wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying back alive. body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture husband's writing, madam." We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened