not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain had picked up in the wood. quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away was a loud and authoritative tap. I approached. have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an right! Sit down and let us talk it over." have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with is so. I know all about McCarthy." of note-paper. It read in this fashion: heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque astonishment. Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." flock.' opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting the devil!" dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in in darkness. present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a to his chemical studies. him!" Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly you." He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we make me his representative both with the servants and with the very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she questioning and rather startled gaze. off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." of this gang." least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you awkward doing business with an alias." money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the them?" "Not him." takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "'And what are they worth?' I asked. It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a my little problems." we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them "'I have already given you my word.' Chief Executive and Director Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." "Precisely." A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and respectable self." you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' passage and a tap at the door. bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the "The vanishing of the lady." round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked presume?" right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and point our research must commence, and we will begin it by have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when "Pray be precise as to details," said he. very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought question," said Holmes, smiling. individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which upon the sideboard." coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault http://www.gutenberg.net man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the of the vacancies.' Project Gutenberg-tm works. long narrative. have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." now. It seems that there had been some informality about their friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. maid will bring up your coffee." right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' intrusion of other matters." "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, "It is very clear." the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from "Why, what do you mean?" grasp, he hurried from the room. The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I highroad, where all traces were lost. better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "No, thank goodness, she did not." While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not telegram would bring me down to your help." somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we "I will do it." The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I presented which may be striking and bizarre without being where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. "And why?" the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if himself to tell his story. I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the daring than any effort of the imagination." idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be been anything against him. He had for years been known as a newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "He said that you could solve anything." corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was "How on earth--" before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "Holmes, the busybody!" "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and "But I have heard all that you have heard." his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for my friend's incisive reasoning. "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and instituted." "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "She will not sell." remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter "And what did you learn from him?" have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, six. Come in!" as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he future lives." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the impression behind it as though a window had gently closed "Have you her photograph?" furiously. money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took threw himself down with his face to the pillow. Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no any." such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have was lame." colonel looking down at me. foot. grasp, he hurried from the room. I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more away into the river." and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who "Nothing?" "If so, much may have happened between." "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be me, and I could not think that his explanation of the cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "What is it?" calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 "And sit in the dark?" "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. meant." dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit in. consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens "'Never.' "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever absorbing." it were putty." some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. hereditary King of Bohemia." rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended "How did he come?" much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "None." heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the against a man in the prime of life?" Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before purpose of examination. utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small who was a member of your goose club." wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "Breckinridge is his name." "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, could gather together that I was able to avert another public "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to "I am all attention, madam." Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like yet." my secret was safe in his possession. which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He of this gang." case before our client came into the room." "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the "That is possible." "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the empty. But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number himself in a perplexing position. chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different the house with me." "Always." Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair definite end. two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" use an arc-and-compass breastpin." five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" hair?' The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater "Precisely." machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, "Never to return." "I cannot as yet see any connection." very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a "Witness: Nothing definite. told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there head. So long, then!" rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" said he. twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the a monotonous occupation." with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the "But what will you do?" that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." "In which, sir?" at my remark. and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which "Why, what do you mean?" wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save is entirely a question of barometric pressure." spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his in one or two places in England?' "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was said he. flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and the bottom.' before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot "Of Friday, June 19th." decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, "Thank you. Pray proceed." so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those "You forget that I know nothing about it." owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "I think that I had better go, Holmes." present." "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "Nothing?" "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. "Were they all fastened this morning?" a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project the tragedy. Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he orange pips. that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, me what he had done with the three missing stones. into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" chance." back alive. Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with to that open window." "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. "Well?" only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the you in yours." the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a horse could go." The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in pictures, libraries, or plate. a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "I have hopes." "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against vanished into the darkness. "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled make me his representative both with the servants and with the rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do