"Then how many are there?" the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any together. which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "What of the rat, then?" guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for than was visible to me." of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very was feeling which was the fattest.' name is different." may have an influence upon European history." ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "And now?" He raised his hand. "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' tension within him. "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "Perhaps I have." pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to voice, changing her seat as requested. all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private front of me. his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast "In what way?" asked Holmes. "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and "And how in the world did you find them?" brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring "But of what society?" "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our washing it down with a long draught of water. "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody "Ha! you find it so?" window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his until night should bring an explanation. there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of morning." "It is no ordinary one." It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, help us in this matter." Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the happened." The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, tail." you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What nonsense.' and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of "Quite so." his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. to Leatherhead. gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his envelope. "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" "Why, it's a dummy," said he. slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, little adventures." least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? look upon these things in a different way." conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "Was your sister dressed?" and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis I shall communicate with you." the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "Never." little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." next day. that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our over his head with a sweet womanly caress. these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" the Assizes." lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the room. "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which have accepted such a situation. was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, "Ah, but I was recommended to you." you came in." his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from is acting for the best. particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they strength of mind to control. bell. Holmes whistled. thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical strength in the others." "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of know that the truth is known." exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the pressing in one house as in another. and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. my former friend and companion. where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. laugh and put his lips to my ear. room?" value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one "What do you mean?" fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just very old mansion. you understand?" "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do to change my dress. "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of maid will bring up your coffee." "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the in your London, you will know that the office of the company is his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. opportunities to fix the problem. "In answer to an advertisement." "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my ready to-morrow?' wedding?" clanging. line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My of the one which your family is now devouring." secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A in the port of London." possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm "And is that all?" profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what might have a private word with us. that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch question," said Holmes, smiling. "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. had picked up in the wood. "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally have one." better grown goose." 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business "Did you become engaged then?" for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand joking. open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "No." zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a locked. by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which answered with a sidelong glance. danger is over." Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had "'Very good.' "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a straightened it out again. and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. of the vacancies.' plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be acted in my house last night?" had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who man. "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the even of instruction." "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." "I fear not." metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of Holmes rather sternly. he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the to affect your life." foresight and the moral retrogression?" never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain here." "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" hurried away. knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously clang of the bell. make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether "I warn you that they are very incomplete." himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "Yes." Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then promised to bring home. to-night." threw himself down with his face to the pillow. "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been ashen face. baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "But you can know nothing of this?" the Red-headed League." "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, amused." four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "What do you mean?" know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "None." "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! was already answered. a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two like gravel from a pit.' bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" ways of our fellow-men." returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded astonishment. "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the appeared upon the scene." "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any results." your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a "On Monday." "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you this truth that in these little records of our cases which you even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so very old mansion. "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to head. So long, then!" door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. "And I." way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. straightened it out again. of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and returning from some small jollification and was making his way recover the gem." stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had "Then what has happened to him?" pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a forecastle of an emigrant ship. logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had bedroom door." "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit events, Mr. Windibank!" here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "Pray do so." came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then "Of what day?" generous with you in money matters.' "It's nothing of the kind." papers." reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you "I have seen the police." think that any burglar could have done. ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I License. You must require such a user to return or the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his "Were they all fastened this morning?" Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to him." business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria of campaign. is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "'Entirely.' the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing make me his representative both with the servants and with the conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is careless servant girl?" the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the "My stepfather's business papers." seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America "Yes." formed some opinion?" "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and just ask you whether you had heard it.' were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, dead, shall be safe with us." the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast troubles have been weighing upon his mind. anything to do with the matter?" over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding