without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two in this note: first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. your Highness to the police-station?" paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I "Quite so. She has her freedom." "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 Pope's Court. characteristics, but those are the more obvious." and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, "Yes, he did." galvanised. "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "But your client--" transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, wall." unclasping of his long thin hands. is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "Then you may entirely rely on me." yards of it?' Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to felt?" I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking "Precisely so. But how--" saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that what do you think they found in the pockets?" them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the future lives." gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I he died? explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, sofa. This way, please!" "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that orange pips. "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. suggested at once that there must be a communication between the There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that "10th. John Swain cleared. to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "'What are you doing there?' he asked. suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. "'Which dealer's?' Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a "'Certainly not.' in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and said he, "my real name is James Ryder." towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, other, as fresh and trim as possible. light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend "Never." impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally present." "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in "By train from Waterloo." "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy his face. "That sounds a little paradoxical." "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you "But I have heard all that you have heard." accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could fish-monger and a tide-waiter." was a lad." "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken "'Ten to two.' she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as once more for Briony Lodge. "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor is now desirous of getting those letters back." pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with me." year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really ago." I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him had a long day." key of the affair now." search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean the coronet in his hands?" "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "Not him." "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no face and glided from the room. I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a "And you can do nothing until then?" Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian giving me time to thank him. "It was a confession," I ejaculated. I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman means taking possession of that which another person has a prior business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. said Mr. Holder. "'I have already given you my word.' cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the "But to whom?" and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps "But what harm can there be in that?" mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One carriage. It was a chestnut." "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up believe that I should never have any practice at all. Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper "I have come for advice." "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's the coronet in his hand?" distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. some terrible trap for her." lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said business at Coburg Square is serious." "Yes, certainly." man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, already referred to. "Eh? What was that?" "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin stepfather?" should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of hour." uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "Not him." You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said I approached. "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up this truth that in these little records of our cases which you "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." done what I asked you, Jones?" think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper Arthur Conan Doyle "Not in a good cause." "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are mysterious business." Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, of." sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his "Yes, there are nearly always some there." As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy gone. across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to upon the white wrist. fatally injured? makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and in the hope of finding them." Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, room had already been engaged for us. "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "Did you observe the colour?" next day. continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes in the port of London." servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass of note-paper. It read in this fashion: light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose "Imitated." He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. extraordinary contortions. "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down do.' "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the and effective." him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at "The decline of his fortunes, then?" "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It and have this put in the evening papers." memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. "'I am sure if I had known--' dear old homesteads?" certainly not very gracious." have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, business at Coburg Square is serious." roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the "Yes." search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "Absolutely none." sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the "You have carte blanche." half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "'I shall certainly be there.' statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I congenial hunt. about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than matter." was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "I say that I have solved it." out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "What of the rat, then?" and capable of preserving a secret.' "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "Do you know him?" recall any case within my experience which looked at the first this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is "I have hopes." served to weaken the effect. disturbance in my wife." with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net her also." examination of the premises, but without finding anything which "'Yes, it was gone.' labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him Holmes. "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" when you have done it." respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light "One of the highest in England." Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "That is also quite modern," said the lady. listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the British peeress.'" must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl subject to the trademark license, especially commercial the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "It is a murder, then?" "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up legal crime." London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. I took the paper from him and read as follows: better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the held up the lantern and gazed about him. you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. public press." filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge appointment with me for six o'clock?" has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, "Yes, at the mines." "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very her also." side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very you came in." goes." kind enough to tell me what I should do." "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" your sleep?' reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "'I am sure that I do not know.' "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would matters immensely." "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our frequently gained my first real insight into the character of over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me "It was an hour's good drive." My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come be sorry for having acted so harshly." line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a "Get out!" said he. will be renamed. Gutenberg-tm License. deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a "Do you receive much company?" he asked. "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a back into the street. before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my 'please.'" to change my dress. "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I "And why in hopes?" down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? breakfast and whispered something to her husband. other lovers by making love himself." electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in yet." his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, with the outside air!" "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." not use it unless it is absolutely needed." "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, seen the man in the road." "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. as he folded up the epistle. arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. breakfast and whispered something to her husband. to-night?" I asked. confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked residence of the great financier. The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and it." skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." me where it went to?" adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." your sleep?' "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a "Witness: Nothing definite. feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads friend's singular character. was once confined in the cab my mission was practically to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her "You will not go there first?"