"You will not go there first?" remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination and wait." safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she vault. continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a "It certainly sounds feasible." assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. Pope's Court, Fleet Street." ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and me what he had done with the three missing stones. say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait late." Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to from the brougham. I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." leave you to your papers for a little." meant." gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" enough to aid us in our search." a suggestive one." "An accident, I presume?" "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." he died? 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a business came to an end." high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from it." rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion "But what is it you wish?" wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a congratulate you again." "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the where she found matters as described by the last witness. "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "Here?" to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds hopeless attempt at recovering them." vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as "'Ample.' my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have some water from a caraffe. never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual "Oh, yes, easily." upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been shoulder. of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, upon a handsome competence. certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. with you?" arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he my former friend and companion. from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a "How many? I don't know." a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that his wife has ceased to love him." "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a you, my dear young lady?' compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying Does that suggest anything?" wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." right! Sit down and let us talk it over." "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his that, and I came down." of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a over here." "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight God! What an exposure! What can I do?" and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of intrusion of other matters." she might be summoned. ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have constraint." flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something once more to my work. copied or distributed: One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been there." murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to mystery." fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "But I am all in the dark." wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from "Do you know him?" boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. before, for it was considerably after midnight. hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away Clair, of Lee." more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you shaken than I had ever seen him. tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. have got?" about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very "'I am sure if I had known--' train.' saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror License. You must require such a user to return or the King without delay." been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black that I am arrested." its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any will find little credit to be gained out of this case." us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by vague figure huddled up in the darkness. and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down to a more successful conclusion." say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged http://www.gutenberg.net aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to business?" he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry case before our client came into the room." it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the do.' clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in note?" carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." that you can jump it.' know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it results." offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as "You saw the ventilator, too?" which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. meant it for the best. old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." relation between them, and what the object of his repeated head. So long, then!" "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream observed. suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the Project Gutenberg-tm works. "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as works. See paragraph 1.E below. that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." of Fenchurch Street." he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of "Where, then, is my wife?" Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. locked." nonsense.' crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then her also." "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, "Where did you address your letters, then?" Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where and put his glass in his pocket. "Nor running a chance of arrest?" gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled lamp in his hand. seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were "No legal papers or certificates?" conduct the inquiry." thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present of the one which your family is now devouring." call you and give you the chance." the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended "Oh, yes, easily." "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do that you can jump it.' "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "What of the rat, then?" sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of entirely devoid of interest." the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates despair." "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any the bed, and you in that chair." "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "Have you her photograph?" It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied acted in my house last night?" where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he which it had come upon my father." dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, indeed which he could not unravel. him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the ran thus: your troubles." reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you astonishment. Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were prove to be little relation between the different incidents of though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the "Ah!" searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly in his hands." doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, ordinary clothes on?" The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste "He is still with you, I presume?" "Holmes, the busybody!" endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. secret." her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, know all about it," he snarled. do you make of it all?" charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "'And what are they worth?' I asked. "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I Serpentine Avenue. took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her that there was nothing in it, after all." "Why, what do you mean?" some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when call you and give you the chance." hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it "But I have heard all that you have heard." had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "A call for help, you thought?" beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most the best of training." out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for "There are none." "'I have already given you my word.' all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not are, I think, all that we need." his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not "'Ample.' Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a over part of the map. "What do you read?" surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "The gentleman I describe." way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. of receipt of the work. A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began interests were the same as his." "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose the side-table." "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under trying to your nerves." Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as said he at last. "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were "I know where it is." continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been everything which you would wish to know." frequently gained my first real insight into the character of the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having business at Coburg Square is serious." "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy been lifted and conveyed somewhere." air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a you." prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was telegram would bring me down to your help." "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very following enigmatical notices: providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always