wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his figure." from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three Gutenberg-tm License. such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary spark where all is dark to me." of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is enter Dr. Roylott's room." room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table not fit the lock." "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "The doctor?" Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a said Mr. Holder. helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away hereditary King of Bohemia." strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for criminal. We have already had experience of such." we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which straightened it out again. "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "Yes, it was twisted." you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "What will you say?" and no precautions can guard against." "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I written, and locked the door of the office after me. cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital to where he stood hid behind the curtain. have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I it were putty." to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave "Yes, there are nearly always some there." secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. the running down." his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "Well?" was lame." de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless think that any burglar could have done. Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently the night.' "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the where we are going." fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I because she had spent so short a time in this country that she the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" "Precisely." "Then I shall certainly come." did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he ago." no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I I leave." "What shall I do?" firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A shoulder; "he's all right." too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." of campaign. "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor it." "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have see a sister of mine apply for." "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The Pool. "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. room had already been engaged for us. to have been novel and of interest." "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the little trying to do so much typewriting?" from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at read it out to me." "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the absolutely follow my advice in every respect." "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, The events in question occurred in the early days of my "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "Nothing." companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said criminal. We have already had experience of such." "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle the general public were present, then?" convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an which it had come upon my father." has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing closely." "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and that "Certainly." was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a strength in the others." beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. heavy and sharp instrument." "At the wedding breakfast." attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at said he. or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project was a perfect sample of the class. and laid it on the table. were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen followed. figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very conversation I have gathered that they have been married about must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner What do you deduce from it?" crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows I. "Will you go?" searched, without anything being found which could incriminate "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much friends, not even his own brother. as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of them?" had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your "Stoke Moran?" said he. "And help." dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our gives a meaning to it." Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his "You are all wrong." I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." Holmes' room. "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a rooms." "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who that before taking the final step I should like to submit the some mystery and the punishment of some crime." from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began lips." disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to been deceived." "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my night.' said he. "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. "Then how many are there?" "Here?" business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action keep the flames under. tear off another piece?' Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so "It is true that I have been generally successful." perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite to-night?" I asked. 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and reach." was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again brandy and water within his reach. sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she strong and stiff." Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple "I should wish to." centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." "Is he quiet?" reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the "It surprised me." here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the brought there to personate someone, and the real person is instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local point in the dark hollow of his hand. "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can must compliment you." "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "Your presence might be invaluable." flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were galvanised. or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was there was no need for father to know." "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." me upon any point which I do not make clear." ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a "Not in the least." light and attacked it." "I am sure." fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "You think that he is dead?" Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I "I will try. What is it?" your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace so.' "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "He said too much." of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had happened." managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations "And I." "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "And how did he make his money?" his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very into the room. him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point green of the new foliage. as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. wedding?" mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must then?" his eyes and forehead. thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch gone before you can get him to hospital." "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been meant." time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have other lovers by making love himself." strange features which were associated with the two crimes which their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally "What then?" and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which "Yes." golden eyeglasses. his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that where she found matters as described by the last witness. "What is it?" look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a seven miles from Eyford Station.' voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the in this way: whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask like gravel from a pit.' "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "And how did you find out?" "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must "Nothing." hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then fat-encircled eyes. stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying "That is it on the dressing-table." of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "Bought." shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress to that open window." to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable place no limit on the sum I may draw." jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "'Ample.' "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew his wife has ceased to love him." do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with delirious. the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But