"You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. to tackle the facts." simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it "'I am sure if I had known--' to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger before, for it was considerably after midnight. and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, had no one to advise her at such a crisis." good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some unkempt, staring out at me. concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this "Why serious?" "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they get the tickets." "No, distinctly professional." he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "Dark enough and sinister enough." Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used "When did she vanish, then?" of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so "You forget that I know nothing about it." matter over." "Not particularly." case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and strong reason behind." the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of "An enemy?" the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which colonel looking down at me. "Where did you address your letters, then?" imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' "Then the page we have seen--" glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and been with you?" "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "'Ample.' "But his left-handedness." the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But pity, because in other respects you would really have done very There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across to his chemical studies. directors, with the result that you have seen." I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the attention." in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the is four-and-twenty." interest. They are important, you understand, without being it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in before the coroner and the police-court." India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers head. So long, then!" once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "You horrify me." was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the experiences." cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "Game for a morning drive?" "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we just called myself is not exactly my own." jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed "Not particularly." happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are "And you thought he was pulled back?" your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "Yes." "And you thought he was pulled back?" "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the "I was sure that I might rely on you." weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over tear off another piece?' freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done "'Yes.' you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been "I was certainly surprised to find you there." however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. interested in these little problems, and since you are good shaken than I had ever seen him. "It is solved." "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all "And now?" I asked. became a certainty. that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some "Where, then, is my wife?" Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and our word." redistribution. the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. had no one to advise her at such a crisis." Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, call the police, let the police find what they can.' "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss "The King of Scandinavia." The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in there were one or two details which were new to me. But the corner of the building. "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever noise which awoke you from your sleep?" burst into a hearty fit of laughter. dear old homesteads?" As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just weighed down with some great anxiety. while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss down in his armchair and closing his eyes. one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having place, I think that there is good ground to think that the "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER "I shall most certainly do so." observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No we went to search for him, face downward in a little breakfast." darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can "Do you receive much company?" he asked. "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." union?" "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the now. It seems that there had been some informality about their have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. other means.' can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are criminal. We have already had experience of such." from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small the coronet in his hand?" streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. a little more before I quite committed myself. present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded his wife has ceased to love him." "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we of Mr. Rucastle's." "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon round and wave him away like that.' The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you the address that was given us in the advertisement. ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "It is solved." "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must one or two very singular points about this room. For example, what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would perplexity from it to my illustrious client. continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps door?" had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this mystery may be cleared along those lines." "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H voice. relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress "Frequently." "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, someone who had been in Australia." fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore "The Coroner: What do you mean? had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on promised to bring home. between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and stepfather?" was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and your troubles." and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by is four-and-twenty." that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other to tackle the facts." for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious once more for Briony Lodge. above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her arrested. You then--" his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they in your London, you will know that the office of the company is morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled disappearance of these gems?" "I will, Miss Turner." last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything the morning and make my own way in the world.' "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and window when the police appeared." copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and "And how did you verify them?" much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." conduct the inquiry." "The Coroner: What do you mean? wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the have accepted such a situation. "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a four million human beings all jostling each other within the very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than "You were travelling in the States?" justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that heavy and sharp instrument." and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly clang of the bell. returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw "Did he not advertise?" unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a yourselves in at night?" and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit certainly not very gracious." "And for present expenses?" that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his door?" fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before least a fellow-countryman. the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the there has been an enclosure here!" impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are tail." There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector thirty. having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said "VIOLET HUNTER." Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. McCarthy's innocence. should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the cheerful." glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was for securing the situation." is now desirous of getting those letters back." "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are bare slabs of marble. "And when will you call?" Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you in his hands." do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "What office?" "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving "Quite so." "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at not, dad?" she asked. array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell some mystery and the punishment of some crime." should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at could not account in any way for the presence of the missing ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "Was the window open?" "And I say east," said my patient. "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "I promise," said Holmes. "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project happened." hour?' particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past