well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up begin with, and I had not got mine yet." jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one is now desirous of getting those letters back." "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven and the whole place is in a blaze." from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his seven miles from Eyford Station.' particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" strode off upon his way. "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece "An enemy?" "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for fish-monger and a tide-waiter." the devil!" do.' interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master figure." individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our "The knees of his trousers." cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and "I think it very unlikely." St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society politicians who had been sent down from the North. union?" any more." pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," invisible to me," I remarked. promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are "I have my revolver," said I. pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in "What then?" "Pray continue your narrative." was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the "Perhaps I have." Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" felt the room to be a little close.' the little opening for the ventilator is." five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get garden below. hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a the iron safe, which he closed upon it. rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of in darkness. photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the beyond words. stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "Yes." daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can the salesman. is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, not interfere, come what may. You understand?" constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on 'please.'" is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I ashen face. with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the I. go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. "In answer to an advertisement." with her." conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man "Very truly yours, reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had soul! here is her carriage at the door." we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "Was she in good spirits?" behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the open." the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my "And why?" "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the "Yes, he did." "None." cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "Yes, they were peculiar boots." Literary Archive Foundation Lee, in the county of Kent." "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have weigh very heavily upon my conscience." your troubles." where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety death." the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave see a sister of mine apply for." electronic works Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" "Absolutely?" the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you look upon these things in a different way." you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." "'Why that?' I asks. some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever down. window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears "What! a murderous attack?" retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the such attractions and accomplishments?' rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are affection." man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a "Murdered?" "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some business matters.' Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment waste of energy." Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you III. and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked "Awake, Watson?" he asked. the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' "'What do you call purely nominal?' husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its hair?' imbecility!" he cried. Mary, has deserted me." including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists "10th. John Swain cleared. Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train "It is possible." logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "I cannot tell." think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the "Quite so." copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." not interfere, come what may. You understand?" stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him later, upon the night of May 2nd." and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. Sutherland. It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight "It was." the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible his face which made him a very different person to the round, disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to as he folded up the epistle. "How on earth--" stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and for securing the situation." the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced me. off." said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. made him keep the appointment." "And how in the world did you find them?" one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly electronic works "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his his grey eyes. crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "But how will you look?" "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece is so. I know all about McCarthy." "How do you know, then?" well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. you." it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the "Have you it here?" very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his have not had my rubber." do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' "Has he come with you to-night?" my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I to tell." he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its money should be paid at once.' "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." hopeless attempt at recovering them." cup of tea. I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" fish-monger and a tide-waiter." magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and 'please.'" leaning back in his chair. employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at The King stared at him in amazement. "How did he come?" One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not shaken than I had ever seen him. "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would that there was nothing in it, after all." house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down "In answer to an advertisement." the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be "Then I shall certainly come." congenial hunt. "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily "And you thought he was pulled back?" which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it was keenly on my guard against him. very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the and put his glass in his pocket. "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the manager. from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "But what harm can there be in that?" tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to definite end. re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, "I am sure." "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! imbecility!" he cried. were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite most interesting one." young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much business." alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and Project Gutenberg-tm works. "Ten will be early enough." you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a enter Dr. Roylott's room." "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out instincts rose up against that laugh. thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our the bed, and you in that chair." "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body were unconscious?" and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." pierced for earrings?" should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless 'please.'" He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "'Where to?' Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "That is unusual in a young girl." "What shall I do?" "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." "Yes." we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "How many? I don't know." Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either was a perfect sample of the class. "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is *** START: FULL LICENSE *** to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "That sounds a little paradoxical." eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to "'I have heard so.' dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." national property. I was determined that the law should have its that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must "The King of Scandinavia." column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one I nodded again. "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one so.' was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll "'Which dealer's?' morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There we went to search for him, face downward in a little over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole his face which made him a very different person to the round, handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To even of instruction." arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square depend upon my doing so.' in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you,