the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming gone. his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "Certainly." once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "And what did you see?" directors have had misgivings upon the subject." and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between this man was intellectual?" most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that deduce something from that?" mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that congratulate you again." noting anything else of interest. thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I husband's writing, madam." "Was there a secret marriage?" have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two so.' long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the less than 26s. 4d. thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, her also." "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She least a most suspicious remark." silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and "But he might be a bachelor." "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and "I cannot think." there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've God! What an exposure! What can I do?" moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his "In heaven's name, what for?" for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred ways including including checks, online payments and credit card there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was of campaign. doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty "'Why that?' I asks. Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep John Swain, of St. Augustine. was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." "And I say east," said my patient. suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He help us in this matter." sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, "The doctor?" "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "What! You do not mean bodies?" "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such ago." about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my "Well?" young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his to-night?' "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness "But you were on a friendly footing?" "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. are, I think, all that we need." "Yes." me what he had done with the three missing stones. "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, taking in every detail of the apartment. room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he "I cannot imagine." idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about believe that I should never have any practice at all. "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he "Pray do so." dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three chance." of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need be. "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "And how did you verify them?" "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry detective. gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so his cane at the bell-pull. father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, as he folded up the epistle. you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of "What I expected to see." law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to recover the gem." fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "Why? What do you mean?" "I am to be neutral?" "Murdered?" of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. "There is the writing." tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and then?" she might be summoned. "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was at my own good fortune. http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ "Certainly." attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William "But he might be a bachelor." "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he national property. I was determined that the law should have its keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week someone who had been in Australia." "And why?" inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured your bag." "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His unclasping of his long thin hands. "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now direction." "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "'Oh, no.' "No legal papers or certificates?" Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The "I am sure." my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique power." returning from some small jollification and was making his way "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the seven miles from Eyford Station.' most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the used to be." colour had been driven from his face. "Do you receive much company?" he asked. of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here searched, without anything being found which could incriminate come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal breakfast." "Was your sister dressed?" insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose rooms." "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "I have hopes." the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the vague figure huddled up in the darkness. Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and you in your example." in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "How about poison?" drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white overpowering excitement and concern. wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements himself. squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and the address that was given us in the advertisement. reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in "We must have a cab." were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story remarked. "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this the coronet in his hand?" may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my The telegram which we eventually received came late one night "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. signal between you and your father? chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you maid will bring up your coffee." to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start the station." had formerly been in part my own. refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such Holmes. There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "You are all wrong." "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with to-night?" I asked. "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual as he folded up the epistle. the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: tension within him. mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother your troubles." endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as "But how will you look?" without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the "The landlord of the Alpha." through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the disturbance in my wife." comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some me where it went to?" to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be McCarthy." "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. this as likely?" 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "But you can know nothing of this?" want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a enough to aid us in our search." golden eyeglasses. and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was emerged. colonel looking down at me. received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." married her." pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police You can understand that this register and diary may implicate form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. than was visible to me." should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. dear old homesteads?" "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' "One of his hands." evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "But we can't all be." "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: cause to be." waste of energy." the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "Perhaps I have." soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. "Perfectly so." that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "Not social, then?" appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address "9th. McCauley cleared. daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your fat-encircled eyes. in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and bore every mark of being an average commonplace British up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as constraint." my former friend and companion. "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and "My dear Holmes!" of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I "My dear Holmes!" Cross for the Continent." there." heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently "VIOLET HUNTER." License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week foot. dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the suggested at once that there must be a communication between the A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this country, and eventually married, without anyone having a more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to that he has suffered." stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my the coroner come to?" ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming