brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." minor matters until to-morrow." "I will, Miss Turner." of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and "It is no ordinary one." we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and considering the formidable letters which were received by himself me." "'Entirely.' Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade and your relations to her." aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I awaited us upon the table. handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. and all of them with the keenest interest. case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the "A greater distance to travel." shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought off." "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the had picked up in the wood. "VIOLET HUNTER." you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in ourselves in the office." "I am to be neutral?" the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I "I have come for advice." engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger this Miss Turner." Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "BALLARAT." Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread extraordinary contortions. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a and laid it on the table. equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin developed." greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small and I shall be with you presently." "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. "It's nothing of the kind." work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "Yes, that is the Crown." "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It Miss Holder?" ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have "I cannot as yet see any connection." "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good hereditary King of Bohemia." that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another http://gutenberg.net/license). I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of "But you would not advise me to refuse?" the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my "On Monday." Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in examination of the premises, but without finding anything which look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are acquaintance?" turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened there!' pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon vault. when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' subject to the trademark license, especially commercial records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I guilty parties." And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the bed dies. Does not that strike you?" perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "How on earth--" been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it the general public were present, then?" is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own whether it answered to the description of any of their humiliation." is a common subject for conversation. fact, we may call it conclusive." married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their redistribution. that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in the house with me." might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the States. preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "Pray do so." have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any gentleman's clothes. door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, o'clock is it?" him, that man would not have given me such complete information friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who "None." works. See paragraph 1.E below. and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock respectable self." "I never have." observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend the night.' said he at last. you." towards the blaze. traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that bird I ate is country bred." "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a once more for Briony Lodge. practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I cigars in the box." eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock is," said he presently: it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one "And on what day did he meet his death?" light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch "'Is purely nominal.' "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? deduce something from that?" "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He "Very truly yours, twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes "No bad?" unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and client, rising. "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY "A greater distance to travel." supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich "By no means." fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the recall any case within my experience which looked at the first "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said fishes. "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during "Yes, it would be as well." his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "Nothing." all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied "I will not look." "We were both in the photograph." almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout waste of energy." To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an I nodded to show that I had heard. exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "One of his hands." rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. bell. Holmes whistled. fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and there were so many in the whole country as were brought together Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" "She showed me, as I told you she would." heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "And the murderer?" "'Most admirably.' client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "'I am sure that I do not know.' Sutherland?" built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." than to us. Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a "You know me, then?" weigh very heavily upon my conscience." "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done me what he had done with the three missing stones. During two years I have had three consultations and one small cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of "Get out!" said he. "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the room?" homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened exactly what you advise." values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have important." "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner me what he had done with the three missing stones. do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize front of me. donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that "'Oh, no.' I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, again, where I was soon asleep. "Yes, there are nearly always some there." often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." lumber-room." "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his pressing in one house as in another. "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" so.' "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that "Yes, only one." The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you "But who is he?" not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the weighed down with some great anxiety. to some other building. But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the them?" very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the hurried by. "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "There is the writing." great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at likely to be some crony of the landlady's." round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town "But his left-handedness." him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed said Mr. Holder. eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my comes from the middle window." girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than lost nothing by them." have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. the station." "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we because she had spent so short a time in this country that she official police." meanly of me." was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose with the outside air!" "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an Arthur Conan Doyle Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited me. "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met or in danger--" 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied weary and pale-looking. the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." people don't know." sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to Foundation at home. usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as likely to be some crony of the landlady's." edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. call you and give you the chance." pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "I cannot imagine." colonel looking down at me. "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. at my remark. you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are "Absolutely?" don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the him, that man would not have given me such complete information are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled "Quite so." put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be arrested. You then--" set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have "Well?" there!' 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." main points of my analysis." I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than the room while you explain this matter?" scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw there!' that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just to his chemical studies. being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "Very. But will he see it?" seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "An enemy?" eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. it were putty." point our research must commence, and we will begin it by "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the weighed down with some great anxiety. "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me events than those which have happened in my own family." comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the Foundation I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, pressing in one house as in another. mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for impression behind it as though a window had gently closed the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in "Oh, yes, easily." whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. the coronet in his hand?" "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should "Which surely he restored to their owner?" creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would "He said that you could solve anything." to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect