"At what time?" be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an an introduction to him?" named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will shaken than I had ever seen him. Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with "It was a confession," I ejaculated. his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "How are you getting on?" gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know You want to know what became of those geese?" "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the "I am about to be married." other means.' the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the "Yesterday." address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "You heard nothing yourself last night?" that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as "It missed him, then?" them?" he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. tassel actually lying upon the pillow. back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were that I may have something better before very many minutes are lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I know that the truth is known." while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous "I see no marks." "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, locked." have established a very serious case against the son of the out of this horrible affair." the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, and glanced through. should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to despaired of." peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter "And you can do nothing until then?" orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see "That is possible." unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to *** START: FULL LICENSE *** met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten to affect your life." snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. *** START: FULL LICENSE *** you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before "And Miss Sutherland?" the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name hurried away. sufficient punishment." "So it appears." well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his fish-monger and a tide-waiter." frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in instituted." with the outside air!" and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant me where it went to?" "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a "I cannot imagine." upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking "Murdered?" blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old companion. having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt again, where I was soon asleep. I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in Leave Paddington by the 11:15." "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and door?" We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him away in different directions, and I went off to make my own 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you I nodded again. had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off and the church but not where the lady lived." aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk situation." parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "But you have hopes?" "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He "I think that I had better go, Holmes." "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a "How did you trace it, then?" and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this "I will, Miss Turner." colour had been driven from his face. "That is possible." have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you of." "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As "It is very clear." waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever Sutherland. "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of that there was nothing in it, after all." possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: troubles have been weighing upon his mind. thirty. For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, events than those which have happened in my own family." though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how "'Where could I find him?' sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "You will not go there first?" good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place seven miles from Eyford Station.' "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the call the police, let the police find what they can.' "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, upon the shelf for the interim." see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much "We have tried and failed." seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, been shamefully used." "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do question you as to those details which seem to me to be most Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I himself to tell his story. besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself together. Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your "Did your wife hear all this?" was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had overpowering excitement and concern. we went to search for him, face downward in a little whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a and it need not interfere very much with one's other that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. she might be summoned. of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the possible that we could bring him back to her? watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he into the room. anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, of this gang." nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had himself. hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, row." inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding "But who is he?" or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you absolutely follow my advice in every respect." snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a events than those which have happened in my own family." highroad, where all traces were lost. him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had have had none more fantastic than this." direction." has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "Very murderous indeed." and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his bedroom door." hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest "I cannot say that I have." some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them "'What then?' I asked. "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether meant it for the best. me what he had done with the three missing stones. across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "You were travelling in the States?" Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire "I think it very unlikely." but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" Edgeware Road. breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the which we had just quitted. Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. I nodded to show that I had heard. IS to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's "'Which dealer's?' hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We amused." importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and were new raised from a basin. "What I expected to see." "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "Why, it's a dummy," said he. opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' visitors." your bag." "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." "'And the work?' no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in into the bag, and made for the door. practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of returning from some small jollification and was making his way "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is "Is he quiet?" DAMAGE. "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. mystery!" "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk you give your casting vote to?" hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, "I am about to be married." be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain Sholtos." "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." never came back." have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found that you wished to speak to me?' cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his DAMAGE. ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise again before evening." overpowering excitement and concern. "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project could go. he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled helping a boy to put up the shutters. "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to "How often?" eavesdroppers?' twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded to change my dress. immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their kind enough to tell me what I should do." swore that no one else had been in the front room during the but preventing her from injuring another. be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the "Precisely so. But how--" Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed "Nothing." "She told me to ask you." one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and yourselves in at night?" the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it business matters.' of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more thin, with a long, sharp nose?" your own bird, so if you wish--" "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent "'Stolen!' he cried. take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the forbidden door. we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, never will be, entirely cleared up. Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a lost his Christmas dinner." man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' "Dirty?" appointment with me for six o'clock?" Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train new duties?' though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the intimate personal affairs in this public manner." Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and "Do you know him?" that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two to go into your room and bar your shutters?" about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her sooner or later she must fall a victim. fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a "Stoke Moran?" said he. request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United "What of the rat, then?" takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how along the entire front of the house, with three long windows Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled "How about poison?" him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his