see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and Doctor, of the paper and the date." his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who The events in question occurred in the early days of my quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical could go. was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting were wasted." twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. following enigmatical notices: "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I minor matters until to-morrow." habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land that you saw all that I did." Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. "Has he come with you to-night?" value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. salesman. my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in already referred to. "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. "There is the writing." man. like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This the armchair which I pushed forward for him. roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had fact, we may call it conclusive." not fit the lock." "In what way?" asked Holmes. coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these ventilator." emerged. gentleman's clothes. their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant is so. I know all about McCarthy." very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there "Why, what do you mean?" the date of his supposed suicide." call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. locked." had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, "Where, indeed?" in a friendly supper." be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an conclusions. "Precisely." can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe fait accompli?" her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "'Not at all. I only doubt--' Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "I promise," said Holmes. I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "Well." sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their written, and locked the door of the office after me. There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of "'Not at all. I only doubt--' headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the some mystery and the punishment of some crime." the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to lips." will not take me long to tell. pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. my friend's incisive reasoning. turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, words came to my lips. "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be distance from the station, and there we found the young lady job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where Holmes' face clouded over. to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." cigars in the box." over with notes and figures. case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "Where to?" the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "Not in a good cause." chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De singular points about the case. What did the police think of the the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more dates and names. corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "It was an hour's good drive." "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "No." sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and "There is the writing." round with crates and massive boxes. of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and "No bad?" "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room peculiar to him. "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a been." space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so "No." "'As governess?' explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a desk. when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much became a certainty. only touch the interest." assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which other means.' sparkled upon his finger. The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I like gravel from a pit.' but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is Surrey." "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps away to you." eat it." the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "In what way?" asked Holmes. "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "Then what has happened to him?" "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his the stones. seven miles from Eyford Station.' found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are forebodings. stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which extraordinary contortions. "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter only touch the interest." disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out in darkness. in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from was the fact that his father should, according to his account, lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." she used." "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were events, Mr. Windibank!" his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "We have tried and failed." "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of the inner apartment." shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to writers could invent nothing more crude." "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a views." Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in other means.' held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch and effective." "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: with some details as to your case." heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "What is it?" "What is it, then--a fire?" mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my call the police, let the police find what they can.' does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" felt?" Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "Then I shall certainly come." "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very "'I am sure that I do not know.' to tell." "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his there!' giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. carriage. It was a chestnut." and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in approach us with offers to donate. is so. I know all about McCarthy." spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass Countess of Morcar's?" air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "Can I be of assistance?" wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now weary and pale-looking. "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. "You have a clue?" determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. weighed down with some great anxiety. "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. "A confidential servant?" held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." passage and a tap at the door. Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity your billet.' "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a "Yes." dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "Not I." mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional dates and names. have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for observed. "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. note?" "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight humiliation." passage and a tap at the door. "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion gone. cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention question. young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "'And the work?' "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock the armchair which I pushed forward for him. "My Mary? Impossible!" corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or anything to do with the matter?" James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner allusion to a rat. "He slept on the premises." belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and Leadenhall Street--and--" but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel present strange and interesting features that it is no easy expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. it right.' charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step "But his lameness?" man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his at my remark. Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises six. Come in!" after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to "Yes, that is the Crown." Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. matter over." that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what than to us. Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt photograph a cabinet?" and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent allusion to a rat. this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the "Perhaps I have." Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the have been better. It is all right." presume?" as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" assist you in forming an opinion." is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came "Not yet." Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a "'You cannot say what it was?' He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy tied." and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable "I should like to see him very much." took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural certainly do as you advise." Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to suggested at once that there must be a communication between the erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the shaken than I had ever seen him. "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel an introduction to him?" down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be breakfast?"