gone. With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a "'Then let me do so?' delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. "Come in!" said he. fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The "It is solved." agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." man. I know him from the photograph." "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to "I saw her in conversation with her maid." "Well?" balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no unprecedented a position." "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "Well, but China?" "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a head. So long, then!" It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter leave you to your papers for a little." elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "Nor running a chance of arrest?" "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no "Do you receive much company?" he asked. kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room "And Miss Sutherland?" "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." such person." protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "It is true that I have been generally successful." Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular Holmes' room. effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread dates and names. "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some "Why, it's a dummy," said he. would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "9th. McCauley cleared. as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the handed it to him. that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. be sorry for having acted so harshly." "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should down in his armchair and closing his eyes. your most interesting statement." simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is opened a pocket-book and took out a note. from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from hard-headed British jury." cigars in their mouths. ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, "Yes." observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen and glanced through. besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait walking." good-night and bustled off upon her way. him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend you?' a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All "Indeed! Whose, then?" "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the newspaper selections." Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that know all about it," he snarled. however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps "Of what?" They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they again on its way. will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her until night should bring an explanation. was not a bird to be seen there. table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated may have an influence upon European history." the running down." time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at trifles." bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss will not take me long to tell. "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is "The murder was done with it." faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some me upon any point which I do not make clear." the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "I cannot think." wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I started for the Temple to see my husband. 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so rose-bushes. "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was The summons was a brief and urgent one. overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. "Ah, but I was recommended to you." clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" brought there to personate someone, and the real person is "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all "It was a confession," I ejaculated. "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his appeal." his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of Pool. "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he note?" act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two been lifted and conveyed somewhere." "And you thought he was pulled back?" down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria at a side door. any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my he died? real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs Sholtos." disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may of the efforts of the United States government and of the better "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, round and wave him away like that.' never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send she has been waylaid. There has been no result." "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." Sutherland. "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls Pope's Court. a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded at my own good fortune. and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself "Yes. He waved his hands." to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate sofa. This way, please!" young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a death." Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known secret." "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at which should have the effect of calling the attention of the time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he standing smiling on the door-step. occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had meant." Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through you understand?" opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora with you?" set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not "Which surely he restored to their owner?" "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that legal crime." and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. During two years I have had three consultations and one small you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' money should be paid at once.' "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house the loss of it. and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When forebodings. poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." "To the police?" not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. certainly do as you advise." "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of where Mr. Fordham shows you.' "Where did he live, then?" his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must "But you would not advise me to refuse?" my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be chill to my heart. "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little have got?" he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no "I am in hopes that she does." maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran letters?" drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught "I cannot tell." had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet for securing the situation." pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed "What! Had he lost his wife?" there is a decided draught." "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away me, and I could not think that his explanation of the insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. frequently gained my first real insight into the character of re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his get the tickets." "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only fact, we may call it conclusive." "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was "But how?" comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey fat-encircled eyes. distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit nothing with him." of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "Yes." "My dear Holmes!" really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at writing, and yet I know it well." paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, "Now, then, what's the last entry?" 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It during which he might have communicated with his friend the the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the thought that she would have been so carried away." that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, there was no need for father to know." metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the What do you deduce from it?" said I. "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst McCarthy." too. it means?" God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son to arrive at through this?" Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that comes from the middle window." your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should "None." Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he client, rising. we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots a monotonous occupation." the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, ran thus: "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the "Which are?" matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a The King stared at him in amazement. at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography use an arc-and-compass breastpin." glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the attention." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me your bag." have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would nothing with him." are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that "I have come for advice." "To an English lawyer named Norton." liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call "Certainly, madam." gbnewby@pglaf.org there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." if she died from some sudden fright." "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." said I. Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was way: "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that