might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's "At what time?" my friend's incisive reasoning. grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about over his head with a sweet womanly caress. that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, "I am armed." to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when shall not find me ungrateful." experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other "No?" Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "'Never.' You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" absorbing." "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he a few minutes he said that it would be all right. companion. 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, the coronet in his hand?" an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and "Entirely." railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 may have an influence upon European history." Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl "Because he was handy and would come cheap." see me here to avoid scandal." "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, the so-precious time, but come!' "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. until night should bring an explanation. "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my carried out of court." comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a perplexity from it to my illustrious client. streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, of the way of danger. evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag hour?' said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it What do you deduce from it?" "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as "Stolen." "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know "I am to be neutral?" zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. in my life." better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they appointment with me for six o'clock?" "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It served to weaken the effect. while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace fatally injured? playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn and put his glass in his pocket. "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not "Did you observe the colour?" refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for address. which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at tension within him. that you can jump it.' another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips "My opinion is in no way altered." The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close during the last few years, and there are many noble families to of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp one's self under obligations.' Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. "I have my revolver," said I. My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average away in different directions, and I went off to make my own "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a "Then the page we have seen--" every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed upon the shelf for the interim." bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found strength of mind to control. The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have asked. "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "About a month then." "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo at once, for I have only half an hour." a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second pound a week." an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian everything which you would wish to know." to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel "I don't say that. Perhaps." the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these assist you in forming an opinion." shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only look upon these things in a different way." is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite to where he stood hid behind the curtain. strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently orange pips. Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "And why?" such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out "One horse?" interjected Holmes. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project your sleep?' course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent cigars in the box." why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the there when the Rucastles went away." and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with himself. Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event "Certainly." the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had bedroom door." "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' seem to you to be relevant or not." "Thank you. Pray proceed." for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as "Nothing?" to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "That sounds a little paradoxical." about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I "On Monday." question you as to those details which seem to me to be most "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she room?" "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers "She will not sell." When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the useful material for showing traces. The double line a little tell him that I know him to be innocent." the child." and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little than was visible to me." on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss "No bad?" more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project his wife has ceased to love him." we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of shall not find me ungrateful." keep the flames under. I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." frequently gained my first real insight into the character of people in all walks of life. It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a someone who had been in Australia." you?' friend's singular character. "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. "I have solved it." black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation taking in every detail of the apartment. amused." companion quietly. "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do The note was undated, and without either signature or address. "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps Eyford." through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the public press." persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other flock.' wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we "Stolen, then." my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. tell him that I know him to be innocent." "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one that I can to serve you." would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out cheerful." he. of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, chill to my heart. the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his noise which awoke you from your sleep?" "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so in. walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was do you make of it all?" public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on matter." passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my one of them." letters?" "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a had formerly been in part my own. Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so "I saw her in conversation with her maid." "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite humiliation." sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the heavily into it. here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure and your relations to her." an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and will he say when he returns?" next day. Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which redistribution. that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the own family. temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers him nearly every evening." a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, throat." the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. are, I think, all that we need." this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I the stones. surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "I shall most certainly do so." "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I if she died from some sudden fright." meant it for the best. that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a and glanced through. association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I "Yes, he did." "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off despair." "But how will you look?" "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission room. October 9, 1890. "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard "The Cedars?" "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully "Indeed! Whose, then?" My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first Sutherland. inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern "It is no ordinary one." impression behind it as though a window had gently closed helping a boy to put up the shutters. Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all fire. You quite follow me?" you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be throat." his fortune, and I went back to pa. Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the the house with me." Holmes. empty. call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "Yes." appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard "What is it?" Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "You have carte blanche." "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" Holmes." maiden herself was most instructive." was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels."