serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" time." this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear when your master had gone out." explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the are, I think, all that we need." you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from "Precisely so. But how--" was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. was feeling which was the fattest.' still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "Here?" especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly "I was certainly surprised to find you there." Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet him nearly every evening." "And why?" as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she way: point in the dark hollow of his hand. he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the it." upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will hopeless attempt at recovering them." back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I neither fascinating nor artistic." 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge three of the beryls in it, was missing. "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence off." had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is I nodded to show that I had heard. it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. answered with a sidelong glance. receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should "In what way?" asked Holmes. when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it "'Tell me all about it,' said I. The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His individual and becomes the badge of a society." We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into of receipt of the work. about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are which it had come upon my father." the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss which our visitor detailed to us. suggested at once that there must be a communication between the light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the points to suicide?" "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my as he folded up the epistle. conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the despaired of." aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my "I saw her in conversation with her maid." when your master had gone out." you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down "'Very good.' music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes Leave Paddington by the 11:15." commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "But how will you look?" without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but "It is solved." red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that "Quite so. She has her freedom." rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about away into the river." "You have it, sir, just as it happened." sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our straightened it out again. body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly tassel actually lying upon the pillow. bell. Holmes whistled. "Where to?" building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the she might be summoned. "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had a room. it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my "I have come for advice." "But who is he?" fatally injured? "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward is so. I know all about McCarthy." results." few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not address. ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a bedroom door." takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making The summons was a brief and urgent one. what these perils are?" machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "Why serious?" black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William cup of tea. every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "Absolutely?" The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her him." revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as with some details as to your case." squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who and laid it on the table. gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four "It is possible." "My dear Holmes!" dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your wedding?" "I think that I had better go, Holmes." along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the look upon these things in a different way." the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your cigars in their mouths. "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most fluttered off among the others. and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most showing my impatience. the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An "And Irene Adler?" keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came his wife has ceased to love him." emerged. "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' father's young wife. "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a "I came to find a friend." on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, 'please.'" before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or him and tried to hold him back. me where it went to?" been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how "We have tried and failed." downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "Can I be of assistance?" glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken "And now?" He raised his hand. were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised in a friendly supper." to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the "9th. McCauley cleared. the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "Yes." 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to "Yes, from Horsham." he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "How long did she speak to this Alice?" a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my down. and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, with you alone." head. So long, then!" "He said that you could solve anything." week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of "You were travelling in the States?" suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own Have you good authority for what you say?" moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental voice, changing her seat as requested. about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his enter into my head. started for the Temple to see my husband. unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands "'Certainly not.' his wife has ceased to love him." Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I colonel looking down at me. "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you Pool. he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, spare." Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' carried out of court." "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he "Then I can wait in the next room." successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "I shall be delighted." enough to aid us in our search." One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "Which are?" "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter what these perils are?" speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" "And what then?" ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a Sholtos." "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. just ask you whether you had heard it.' "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon front of me. elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed the very morning of the wedding." "How did you trace it, then?" jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency despair." and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "But you have hopes?" charge against him will break down." initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. been with you?" week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been "That's no good." the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked upon the white wrist. "That is not always so easy." "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her bird of prey. closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at all?" "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no "Very much so." hopeless attempt at recovering them." moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did it means?" pound a week." green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in "'Where to?' Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George next day. typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding him nearly every evening." the date of his supposed suicide." "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the "But the mystery?" mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination gone. 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." Holmes." "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept "Entirely." we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall in him." "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I present." fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the 1.F. the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been 11:15.' "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." bachelor.' a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which "Nearly eleven." "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." "From his hat?" Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. humiliation." The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "Where is it, then?" dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to the one as in the other." "'As governess?' One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle "No." bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of point in the dark hollow of his hand. brain must have something in it." by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face "'Why that?' I asks. grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country golden eyeglasses. he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently national property. I was determined that the law should have its He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! "What then?" - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free if only as a check to my own memory." "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some invisible to me," I remarked. he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who "Where, then?" centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was second." Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the "Yes." "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "Nor running a chance of arrest?" families. Now for the facts. doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for "So I heard. You have him here?" without a word or a look. turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you go--none."