statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' him nearly every evening." day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was interests were the same as his." "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was "What office?" shaken than I had ever seen him. "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with said he. "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out she used." "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "But I have heard all that you have heard." "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call when your master had gone out." fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "The landlord of the Alpha." companion. license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I lectures into a series of tales." "But the mystery?" me where it went to?" upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their "'Never,' said I. "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before the driver. "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go bed dies. Does not that strike you?" developed." 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. "It is to him that this trophy belongs." called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in became a certainty. window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The "Game for a morning drive?" that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope away in different directions, and I went off to make my own said he. smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all Does that suggest anything?" I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself secret." only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me "Very murderous indeed." public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing goes." the night.' Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we said he at last. They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, seem to you to be relevant or not." caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little Arthur Conan Doyle this man was intellectual?" "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "'What would be the hours?' I asked. "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue "What can you not understand?" enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to you in yours." India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was outbreak?" at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his "Perhaps we may make them less so." and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted http://gutenberg.net/license). freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of something of him before." "But you have hopes?" "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at I shall communicate with you." conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried call for protection in the marriage market, for the present quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for dates and names. back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. "Not in a good cause." "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than "My private note-paper." such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, pound a week." "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man was feeling which was the fattest.' should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another of the one which your family is now devouring." to me. (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of 1.F. "'And the work?' that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "Certainly, madam." you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "What, then?" Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my business." and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the hereditary King of Bohemia." "'Tell me all about it,' said I. that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a this unhappy family?" records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and "Ah!" "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the rose-bushes. some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the that before taking the final step I should like to submit the of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' to a more successful conclusion." secret." without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it notes," he said. charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send thin, with a long, sharp nose?" into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while from you?" My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "Yes, he did." disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had is entirely a question of barometric pressure." "'Tell me all about it,' said I. "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; himself to hunt down. many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I http://gutenberg.net/license). "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door sooner or later she must fall a victim. "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There think that he is innocent?" "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest "No." window when the police appeared." although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the leave you to your papers for a little." you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time village inn over there?" 1.F. continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are "Yes, it would be as well." robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy fire. You quite follow me?" appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and whole matter to your consideration." His smile broadened. thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would six. Come in!" grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself "But of what society?" "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business amused." confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a "Texas, I think." tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended "You have it, sir, just as it happened." "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "Yes, but only for you and me." step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another woman who has had her own way to make in the world. stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my "I don't say that. Perhaps." writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, "9th. McCauley cleared. "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. system of imprisonment?" reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make night.' said he. into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new for securing the situation." downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you recall any case within my experience which looked at the first that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended the side-table." hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." evidence," I remarked. fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then me, and I could not think that his explanation of the step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "Certainly." you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "Yes. He waved his hands." "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip closely." "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." important." have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" is four-and-twenty." would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, "It is possible." knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed "I will not look." which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City clanging. hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who "Yes." silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the the date of his supposed suicide." "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I "And Irene Adler?" something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, you for a few hours?" which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told the Red-headed League." and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have introspective fashion. absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since "And Miss Sutherland?" until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who "I have a cab outside." "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she 'please.'" in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to of Fenchurch Street." "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on upon a handsome competence. "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's the ceiling. the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we "'I am sure if I had known--' you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and yards of it?' morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. the warnings." here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "But how will you look?" I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "One of his hands." the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but throat." him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my Clair, of Lee." be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call his huge brown hands. three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a Miss Holder?" "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, crime. explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, this Miss Turner." to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both cigar and let me expound." "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "Her father is very rich?" travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had rose-bushes. written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been "None." "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between late!' the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded and have this put in the evening papers." however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I "'How far from the body?' effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the plantation.' "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "I should wish to." "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open suspect him." Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and a few minutes he said that it would be all right. "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive "I beg pardon." 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one "Will you bet, then?" young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." joking. in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the intrusion of other matters."