window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "Here?" of your young ladies.' hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." your sleep?' was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your "You have the photograph?" "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the shall not find me ungrateful." "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered that you can jump it.' envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are during the last few years, and there are many noble families to half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo drove away. why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help could not have written that. It is the German who is so the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to maiden herself was most instructive." owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy strong reason behind." do.' very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a without success. At last the little money which I had saved began what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "Yes." and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "'Yes, it was gone.' know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress gone before you can get him to hospital." observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, the bottom.' cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this "How long did she speak to this Alice?" away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own fattened it expressly for you.' compunction about shooting them down." "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office obstinate." "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and perplexity from it to my illustrious client. whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "Nothing." note?" standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "What steps will you take?" I asked. "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he call it cruel." jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." appointment with me for six o'clock?" "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came wedding?" the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a likely to be some crony of the landlady's." "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently seem to you to be relevant or not." 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of "But she could not love him." besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, have had none more fantastic than this." "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had will he say when he returns?" silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head thin legs towards the fire. He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, asked. heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have "No more words. Get out!" It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend absorbing." address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his singular points about the case. What did the police think of the to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I "So I am. Very much so." for the market.' you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. happened." monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth and have this put in the evening papers." no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it chambers. Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. neither fascinating nor artistic." upon the white wrist. as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and "Pray be precise as to details," said he. glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "It certainly sounds feasible." "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "I am all attention, madam." II. came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. to some other building. said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor who was a member of your goose club." We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, bird I ate is country bred." "You have it, sir, just as it happened." even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal to go into your room and bar your shutters?" Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend Foundation Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest gentleman's clothes. from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. I think that I could be of assistance to you." thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide the one as in the other." puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that "'No, I know no one in these parts.' roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person "'I am sure if I had known--' and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell "Nothing." "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for "It is his hat." a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "But I am all in the dark." waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, that the gas is not laid on in his house?" such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' four million human beings all jostling each other within the husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of "What shall I do?" "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can and wait." "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is into the bag, and made for the door. matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter "Yes, that is the Crown." "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his most interesting one." "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' could go. after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, to me. ordinary clothes on?" time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to here." "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "That is not always so easy." deduce something from that?" himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my looking up at the numbers of the houses." had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This intimate personal affairs in this public manner." can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he hour?' accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The ashen face. red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." most interesting one." make me his representative both with the servants and with the "And when will you call?" "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. Cross for the Continent." effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that your equipment. of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open this remarkable episode. "Then how many are there?" fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for better in every way that they should make their position a little "Where, then, is my wife?" absolutely follow my advice in every respect." self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. "And how did you find out?" always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its "My private note-paper." "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply "And what did you learn from him?" "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; "Upon what point?" fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The IS Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs you, my dear young lady?' "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that views." a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a kindly on the shoulder. the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found bed dies. Does not that strike you?" telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that behind me. Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might "But to whom?" at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both weapon." "And for present expenses?" in my life." gone. Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought grasp, he hurried from the room. and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing "'I am sure if I had known--' Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes placed his cuttings. air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to "And who is her maid?" "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "Yes, all." mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me "No, I am descending." mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already "'What do you call purely nominal?' attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of opened a pocket-book and took out a note. basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were appeal." "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "Pray do so." "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been "What?" hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might in the hope of finding them." "You have a clue?" accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I "And how did you find out?" one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his works. See paragraph 1.E below. that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added "Yes, only one." determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day coroner's jury." and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new "Her father is very rich?" dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many their singular warning or token before them when starting upon The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change of this gang." grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light Munro.' Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. prove to be little relation between the different incidents of "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said have accepted such a situation. strength." forehead. The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have upon a handsome competence. By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "No. His orders were to stay in the house." and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "Then you may be so with me." parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the I nodded to show that I had heard. notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting helping a boy to put up the shutters. singular points about the case. What did the police think of the the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' "And from a noble client?" both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael photograph?" time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a the house with me." "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very "Very well, sir. And this stone?" 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came "My Mary? Impossible!" "You forget that I know nothing about it." feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, important." you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." come either from the window or the door. My attention was 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this God! What an exposure! What can I do?" states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the entirely lost his self-respect." there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, trifles." had this final quarrel? recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a despaired of." Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had society." With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "And it is--" change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally "And is that all?" most interesting one." whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose