Holmes. everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. "How long did she speak to this Alice?" grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. cheerful." presented more singular features than that which was associated the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "Yes." have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" words came to my lips. it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "May I see it?" will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon anything to a woman, for she would have her way." "I say that I have solved it." reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be conclusions. exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from more solid." reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I new acquaintance to Baker Street. the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of "And how?" smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," "Breckinridge is his name." sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of sneer upon his pale face. chemical work which was so dear to him. music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some and all of them with the keenest interest. "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' both be extremely obliged.' Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. straighten it?" "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" disappearance of these gems?" interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up matter." Serpentine Avenue. veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner "She walked into the breakfast-room." "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less perplexity from it to my illustrious client. something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it light and attacked it." "Murdered?" providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to hurried by. with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to key turn in the lock." in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's "By train from Waterloo." would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the way in everything. this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the States. It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for foresight and the moral retrogression?" demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a lost nothing by them." At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he "I cannot tell." more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the "And you don't know his address?" particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "Not him." were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to system of imprisonment?" bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." one which it was hard to resist. "And how did you find out?" closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite carpenter." mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at six. Come in!" "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated union?" International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the I took the paper from him and read as follows: the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly furiously. "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "Proceed, then." "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the "Can I be of assistance?" eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the overpowering excitement and concern. remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously conduct the inquiry." The telegram which we eventually received came late one night in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. "I have seen the police." anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the stepfather?" make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, "Stoke Moran?" said he. bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and "Never." and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a papers diligently of late, have you not?" "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a a few minutes he said that it would be all right. which are rolled in Rotterdam." very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and "Your French gold?" characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the photograph?" "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from written, and locked the door of the office after me. "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was room?" "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." neither fascinating nor artistic." fear." for its centre. would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' the child." however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I four million human beings all jostling each other within the easy-going way." Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was the King without delay." her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." without a word or a look. Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." generous with you in money matters.' "Because he was handy and would come cheap." opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential useful material for showing traces. The double line a little me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more humiliation." ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" go--none." "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend a room. "I warn you that they are very incomplete." "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came This is what he says: entirely devoid of interest." "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "'Yes, sir.' "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case her also." feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you "But she will refuse." said he at last. folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone Sutherland?" lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of "Pray be precise as to details," said he. you came in." abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the horse could go." "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a at home. the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the been shamefully used." all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding people in all walks of life. old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a few hundred pounds.' "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant be.' "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that touch that coronet?' tassel actually lying upon the pillow. intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every was lame." expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. acted in my house last night?" she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin "I have solved it." her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land confronted him. have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some were new raised from a basin. from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he remarked. servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and tell me that you intended to go into harness." matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the Holmes' thin, eager face. "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. call you and give you the chance." was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus pictures, libraries, or plate. dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its you do it in twenty minutes!' the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower "She walked into the breakfast-room." have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. said I. do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly "A greater distance to travel." him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be "In what way?" asked Holmes. "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most III. "What can it mean?" I gasped. swore that no one else had been in the front room during the Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his "Yes, he did." I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "Oh, the cause is excellent!" "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she "'Stolen!' he cried. expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and "Nor running a chance of arrest?" page at http://pglaf.org anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to asked. to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his been lifted and conveyed somewhere." slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is congratulate you again." and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few the station." man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing distinguish the words: "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 new acquaintance to Baker Street. The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are client, rising. "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia "But his lameness?" "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as asked. these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. "Yes." headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never "What then?" than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you will be renamed. lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "And what did you see?" http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must friend's singular character. "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on "Very murderous indeed." thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to