"'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our "That sounds a little paradoxical." "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes gbnewby@pglaf.org respectable self." "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the "But his left-handedness." to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "If so, much may have happened between." position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place "Then you may be so with me." behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little bird I ate is country bred." Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen at a side door. there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be "By train from Waterloo." knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of "Ten will be early enough." "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, about. "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that "Ah!" "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or ceremony." "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what once more. to Leatherhead. with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project "Very well, sir. And this stone?" should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it shoulder; "he's all right." twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" shall not find me ungrateful." secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently to Leatherhead. you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you "But how will you look?" "But I am all in the dark." right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, the inquest, and which are worth considering." was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I just called myself is not exactly my own." "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no "'As governess?' read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure of." which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do "Quite so. She has her freedom." that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, "No." is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" narrative." simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had how narrow had been my escape. glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a from the brougham. and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the wedding?" wall." "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own hardly wander." manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "Yes, it was twisted." civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from me upon any point which I do not make clear." politicians who had been sent down from the North. "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. was a perfect sample of the class. A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." "What then?" brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a call you and give you the chance." my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my hardly wander." same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek http://gutenberg.net/license). asked. the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. that?' of Mr. Rucastle's." A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks McCarthy's innocence. slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for past. had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You "Well, it is a possible supposition." "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the "Whose house is it?" have accepted such a situation. my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the "My photograph." "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened Sutherland?" therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared But Holmes shook his head gravely. room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great the Red-headed League." and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the "I know where it is." Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" green of the new foliage. doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or "No, finished." my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, believe that I should never have any practice at all. rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with "'Where to?' anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I papers diligently of late, have you not?" that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a away to you." red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon disappearance of these gems?" "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the absolutely follow my advice in every respect." Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." astonishment. During two years I have had three consultations and one small "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the telegram would bring me down to your help." what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, from the brougham. "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of strange features which were associated with the two crimes which and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And "Yes, I have one waiting." you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the have an American origin." to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just it." "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "I should wish to." "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "Never." in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some "What! a murderous attack?" that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but him, that man would not have given me such complete information confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, "And when will you call?" with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to The summons was a brief and urgent one. "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with back into the street. was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "I cannot imagine." the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "It certainly sounds feasible." wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I "And you thought he was pulled back?" remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is records." and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in questionable one." he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The for and were ordered to this address. "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six redistribution. dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "Bought." contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a chemical work which was so dear to him. The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened without a word or a look. past. entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very any more." letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the British peeress.'" always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler yards of it?' redistribution. and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very 'please.'" abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice closing the door. wanted for ourselves." "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of goes." anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled forebodings. passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "Then you may be so with me." the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and "If so, much may have happened between." business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake placed his cuttings. for and were ordered to this address. "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "They are typewritten," I remarked. though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he little trying to do so much typewriting?" hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would "Ha! you find it so?" opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "Murdered?" "No, I think that I'll take it." cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the writers could invent nothing more crude." learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. purpose equally well?" sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began little trying to do so much typewriting?" her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in in my life." the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you might have a private word with us. the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to them present such singular features as the strange train of of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I This is what he says: "Precisely." "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a child?' would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over "Not particularly." of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless