the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. purpose of examination. when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come were new raised from a basin. of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "Yes." his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to noting anything else of interest. took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "It surprised me." "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of opened a pocket-book and took out a note. "Your presence might be invaluable." the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "Well?" "Ah, but I was recommended to you." self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given "And the cigar-holder?" "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something mystery." hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you experiences." now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as during which he might have communicated with his friend the should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the "It missed him, then?" "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, said I. "I should like to see him very much." "Yes, sir." companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss side. the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the "No, I think that I'll take it." she to prove their authenticity?" corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this "Nor running a chance of arrest?" an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. I held the little printed slip to the light. But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that 'I should be able to look after that for you.' set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see my secret was safe in his possession. society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still the Friday. Was it to be in church?" "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No The King stared at him in amazement. "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and answer." years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich new duties?' Holmes." "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had threw himself down with his face to the pillow. an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and vague figure huddled up in the darkness. family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been Eyford." Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and "'Yes, sir.' layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person been anything against him. He had for years been known as a "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. companion quietly. age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even business came to an end." "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "None." the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I several quiet little villages up there." that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down "'I am sure if I had known--' "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I "'Where to?' back into the street. to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew "Where is it, then?" '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' head. So long, then!" were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but fatally injured? gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. Street. coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to sound at heart." "How are you getting on?" that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came "Now, then, what's the last entry?" there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year "And you thought he was pulled back?" in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "'Then let me do so?' Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss ago." Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed status with the IRS. male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. tied." caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by again before evening." been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" closing the door. unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness along the entire front of the house, with three long windows about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in and looked back. didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary cigars in the box." writing, and yet I know it well." "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The me. dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "Nothing?" wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of should be taken.' "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of in darkness. "And what did you see?" said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about "He disappeared so suddenly." details should find their way into the papers. Inspector abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY an introduction to him?" "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little "I was sure that I might rely on you." fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about I have it here in my museum." smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his "What do you make of that, Watson?" vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little "A greater distance to travel." investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection eavesdroppers?' generous with you in money matters.' robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate if I call to-morrow?" the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly guilty parties." conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. thought that she would have been so carried away." you." gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "In which, sir?" come either from the window or the door. My attention was terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home test if we have an answer to our advertisement." equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless "'How far from the body?' and your relations to her." light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from examination of the premises, but without finding anything which exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the beg that you will break it off." watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very "Ah, but I was recommended to you." "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been Pope's Court, Fleet Street." assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' that I can to serve you." WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been John Swain, of St. Augustine. Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own morning." the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from already referred to. "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and Does that suggest anything?" It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice "But the mystery?" matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my "How many? I don't know." at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. miles off. "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" London for the present?" you?" gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread "It must be recovered." dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and forbidden door. retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "I will, Miss Turner." "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without "You did not overhear what they said?" "Then I shall certainly come." I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for upon an income of about 60 pounds." opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. least a most suspicious remark." "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting only touch the interest." dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" shaken than I had ever seen him. bears upon the case?" little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "What! a murderous attack?" you for a few hours?" It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she acquaintance?" the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save such person." just called myself is not exactly my own." carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might mystery!" "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and golden eyeglasses. introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I crime." "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to dead, shall be safe with us." mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "Why serious?" spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "And how did he make his money?" weighed down with some great anxiety. want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "I have solved it." saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid Does that suggest anything?" them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian affection." large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "Never." relief. Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes said he. heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. all?" he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "No legal papers or certificates?" satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face companion. bedroom door." "Oh, yes, easily." and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and "I should like to see him very much." "But you can know nothing of this?" rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was of the one which your family is now devouring." a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us arrangements." folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone be sorry for having acted so harshly." myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a face and glided from the room. reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are way in everything. "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only happened." my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin "That is not always so easy." it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, words came to my lips. woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said row." how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, kind enough to tell me what I should do." considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by "She told me to ask you." "Nothing." "Very truly yours, folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone said Mr. Holder. he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." silent! Oh, he will be silent!' before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you away into the river." A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need in one or two places in England?' "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the "'Yes.' permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to "Then the page we have seen--" should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the to a more successful conclusion." return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a and looked back. where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To