to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my morning." Serpentine Avenue. my room." may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's pity, because in other respects you would really have done very roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk "And how?" corner of the building. puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, lost his Christmas dinner." be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. possible that we could bring him back to her? "It is no ordinary one." which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "By no means." woman." to affect your life." giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord fashion which was peculiar to him. "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." "'Tell me all about it,' said I. with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I Arthur Conan Doyle sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point must compliment you." and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have shoulder; "he's all right." his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated "Yes." of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from http://www.gutenberg.net "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, opened a pocket-book and took out a note. have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly opportunities to fix the problem. prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all this poor creature." disturbance in my wife." "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in "Murdered?" have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question "Yes, it would be as well." the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of wedding?" better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite there!' the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my "Why did you pick him?" Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found the iron safe, which he closed upon it. railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were any little problem which you may submit to me." James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I "Ten will be early enough." Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you "My dear Holmes!" this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and asked with his eyes open. "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to open." quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian maid will bring up your coffee." But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "Well, but China?" air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am photograph?" "It may not come to that," said Holmes. "That is also quite modern," said the lady. at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the "You heard nothing yourself last night?" chemical work which was so dear to him. information in his hands the value of which he did not himself silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any are, and they are waiting for us." "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped address. Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "'Yes, sir.' his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope tightly behind him. "It may not come to that," said Holmes. sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all feature." has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to It was close upon four before the door opened, and a of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the fishes. "My dear Holmes!" fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, yourselves in at night?" quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting instituted." large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." means taking possession of that which another person has a prior the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the you for a few hours?" least a most suspicious remark." "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less whatever might befall. "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those knowledge of the world." "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door you." manager. Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual spare." may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and that the gas is not laid on in his house?" she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. said I. were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "Yes, it would be as well." "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible "'Which dealer's?' his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the easy-going way." of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on Pope's Court. he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has "VIOLET HUNTER." "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads something of him before." London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, business." delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my I have it here in my museum." "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the with some details as to your case." of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless papers diligently of late, have you not?" my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly his knees, staring into the fire. grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another outbreak?" looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project "That you are never beaten." "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said visitors." may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon orange pips. THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So morning." his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very where Mr. Fordham shows you.' noting anything else of interest. connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. which was all perfectly true. down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the "And I." his knees, staring into the fire. was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you this truth that in these little records of our cases which you middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. house for five minutes.' "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened "But how did you gain them?" Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See me where it went to?" and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there "And you can do nothing until then?" Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds fish-monger and a tide-waiter." his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet the nursery. already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "Witness: It was. have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, felt?" half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little little adventures." his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we points to suicide?" round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical your room." "And you thought he was pulled back?" during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was towards the blaze. stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." direction." deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what hand, madam?" "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "'Yes, sir.' secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord "And when will you call?" father's young wife. "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and forecastle of an emigrant ship. the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! subject to the trademark license, especially commercial deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or me have 200 pounds?' from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had is worth.' "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened be.' "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." fat-encircled eyes. finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that heavily into it. handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss "He said that you could solve anything." night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes pressing in one house as in another. Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm "A confidential servant?" prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know bonnet, and went out." ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since 'I should be able to look after that for you.' murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the is a common subject for conversation. "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing and capable of preserving a secret.' action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by "How did you deduce the select?" "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. tell me that you intended to go into harness." spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you and all of them with the keenest interest. "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less vague figure huddled up in the darkness. "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I "'Certainly not.' Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the Where does the thing come from?' without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know "Where did he live, then?" everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the business." "But she will refuse." freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ "Really! You surprise me." outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big "Precisely." "That's no good." the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from "A call for help, you thought?" "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. three of the beryls in it, was missing. nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time troubles have been weighing upon his mind. daring than any effort of the imagination." Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and should be so warm over such a trifle." time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement particular state visit http://pglaf.org to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature you?' and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which voice. "And how in the world did you find them?" six. Come in!" corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not returned to France?" and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice made his money." "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some