hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. who was a member of your goose club." fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." some place of shelter and let the county police know what has remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and six. Come in!" misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, "Do you receive much company?" he asked. it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me "I shall be delighted." Project Gutenberg-tm works. "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a children over to America with him, so that I found myself without but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in lids now and glanced across at his visitor. used to be." deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with "Absolutely none." walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, derbies." "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her "The gentleman I describe." "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage thought that she would have been so carried away." Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that think that he is innocent?" number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to before the coroner and the police-court." shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham swore that no one else had been in the front room during the computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the "Certainly." reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his "The Coroner: What do you mean? "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as until night should bring an explanation. into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad Lee, in the county of Kent." that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything you." conduct the inquiry." have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning their singular warning or token before them when starting upon himself to hunt down. it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking "Then you may be so with me." reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. criminal. We have already had experience of such." this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" visitors." of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. head. So long, then!" happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting trying to your nerves." Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up the salesman. "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a DAMAGE. my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." the matter?" swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. criminal. We have already had experience of such." the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired "To ruin me." connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, "I warn you that they are very incomplete." been with you?" dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "No, I am descending." I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "How do you know, then?" be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, points in connection with it which never have been, and probably delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning me. liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in washing it down with a long draught of water. the general public were present, then?" received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "Breckinridge is his name." my little problems." of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw tail." "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, "Just look it up, then." therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I present strange and interesting features that it is no easy The note was undated, and without either signature or address. "And why?" rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to "At half-wages, in fact." "What will you say?" SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any works. See paragraph 1.E below. "Witness: It was. to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook you." the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, of note-paper. It read in this fashion: smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "Your presence might be invaluable." sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most Farm upon the left." hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, washing it down with a long draught of water. dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and are, and they are waiting for us." "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "'Yes, sir.' Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she stepfather?" which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, colonel looking down at me. conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It held up the lantern and gazed about him. the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United problems help me to do so." horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of works. See paragraph 1.E below. will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which one of them." about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case your billet.' "I answered that I had not. other lovers by making love himself." lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there this man was intellectual?" "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at derbies." all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a you understand?" successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, questioning and rather startled gaze. "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in "'And what salary do you ask?' ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at have not had my rubber." perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I triumphant cloud from his cigarette. her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up like gravel from a pit.' in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net waste of energy." side. "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" "What is it?" his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." kind enough to tell me what I should do." never will be, entirely cleared up. "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman orange pips. reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. me. You must get home instantly and act." sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it official police." however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One individual and becomes the badge of a society." "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as "It is half-past ten now." foot. red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." cause to be." outside. "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "Do you know him?" "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. their singular warning or token before them when starting upon we went to search for him, face downward in a little you?' in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a weigh very heavily upon my conscience." and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the the very morning of the wedding." great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great trying to your nerves." may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical late!' Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. astonishment. my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were is worth.' giving me time to thank him. the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in "Where, then, is my wife?" immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can said I. about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly flock.' know that the truth is known." And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom waste of energy." uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the extraordinary contortions. His name is Francis Prosper." with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it "Stoke Moran?" said he. which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on them?" deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a "You'll never persuade me to believe that." "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, "It is true that I have been generally successful." well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just once more for Briony Lodge. these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to "That is easily got." "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all floor. the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem done what I asked you, Jones?" "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to wife's character?" "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his newspaper selections." "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that point in the dark hollow of his hand. "And how did you verify them?" was already answered. shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I residence of the great financier. would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in "'What then?' I asked. passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how "I never have." owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "'Tell me all about it,' said I. refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "Thank you. Pray proceed." which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. bonnet, and went out." have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something but preventing her from injuring another. developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an "I am all attention, madam." huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great papers." suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post Doctor, of the paper and the date." "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small "He said that you could solve anything." vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for "I have hopes." where we are going." believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate suddenly upon us." outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for writing, and yet I know it well." sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. "My dear Holmes!" my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of interest. They are important, you understand, without being decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a "Will you bet, then?" deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "My own seal." apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, were unconscious?" rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." indeed happy." ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. system of imprisonment?" know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to I. sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an