grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely "I was mad--insane." Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my "When did she vanish, then?" person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "And from a noble client?" I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in "'There is a drive, then?' her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, looking up at the numbers of the houses." sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close this truth that in these little records of our cases which you "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you leaning back in his chair. he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all stepfather?" His name is Francis Prosper." and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, "Then, how do you know?" with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social along the entire front of the house, with three long windows this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was society." and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general she used." "Precisely." accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, distinguish the words: present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "Why did you beat the pavement?" very morning of my second wedding." Street. a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel "My dear Holmes!" league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to it were putty." "What! Had he lost his wife?" "Yes, certainly." building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a in your London, you will know that the office of the company is seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he generous with you in money matters.' Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all bachelor.' the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the you found me to-night--and running through the front room she Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I "How did you deduce the select?" "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon round with crates and massive boxes. which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "Was there a secret marriage?" "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he secret." room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring shoulder. note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that to where he stood hid behind the curtain. cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest quick march!" when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" you want, then?' "What I expected to see." "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, himself to tell his story. her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main "It was a confession," I ejaculated. theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. "I am in hopes that she does." Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. despair." had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now cheerful." course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that "Where is it, then?" "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of whole matter to your consideration." society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had to his chemical studies. sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year "That is not always so easy." against a man in the prime of life?" to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then ceremony." and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it has little to do with my story." all that?" overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was even so self-evident a thing as that." was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, me." in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking bird of prey. frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy you." "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing "'And the work?' Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my fashion which was peculiar to him. the morning and make my own way in the world.' the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming during the last few years, and there are many noble families to into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I papers must be those that are destroyed.' dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were was lame." while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered hopeless attempt at recovering them." other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is did not hear it also.' went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would is entirely a question of barometric pressure." wife's character?" and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. gone. has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of such person." glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it there has been an enclosure here!" it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down "And now?" He raised his hand. ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." ordinary clothes on?" was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind charge against him will break down." home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get "And how did you find out?" everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, here." because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. "None." simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And pictures, libraries, or plate. long narrative. you." little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I the stable lane now." house for five minutes.' eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front "But you have hopes?" dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, what these perils are?" "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. bears upon the case?" "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able for and were ordered to this address. It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, "How can you tell that?" "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must at a side door. morning." "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of troubles have been weighing upon his mind. be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this as he remarks, very much against the son." forbidden door. and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." what I may call a really hard day's work." brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the "Did your wife hear all this?" "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an down in his armchair and closing his eyes. human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room wanted for ourselves." the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. "Have you it here?" "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his "And leave your case unfinished?" family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the interests were the same as his." when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? sparkled upon his finger. winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather fait accompli?" "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. "No." it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs hand, madam?" "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." late." remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something "Holmes, the busybody!" say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country Doctor, of the paper and the date." great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle "Could he throw no light?" money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "Very truly yours, her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me "So I am. Very much so." turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the leave you to your papers for a little." abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the he bowed and left the room without another word. "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always me." tightly behind him. him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his bore every mark of being an average commonplace British stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man be.' to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal me. LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across that I may have something better before very many minutes are electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; door?" His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had should be so warm over such a trifle." "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." one of them." formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to been lifted and conveyed somewhere." time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter cheerful." "And the cigar-holder?" Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace chamber." crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its cheerful." "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of is so. I know all about McCarthy." country, and eventually married, without anyone having a beg that you will break it off." her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so "Witness: It was. fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that on in his house." entirely lost his self-respect." and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum "And sit in the dark?" present." excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right Holmes. before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford the side-table." scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the were new raised from a basin. of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems despair." their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to wedding?" "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may "Perhaps I have." light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "You are certainly joking, Holmes." touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until "The vanishing of the lady." certainly not very gracious." Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which public press." at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in "'Tell me all about it,' said I. week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "But how?" I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my leaning back in his chair. a very grave face. morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be father's young wife. "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. companion. as he remarks, very much against the son." "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham soul! here is her carriage at the door." "It is half-past ten now." said I. questioning and rather startled gaze. Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would I shall continue with my miserable story. aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to