Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, his knees, staring into the fire. have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous promised to bring home. saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King be.' relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly that I may have something better before very many minutes are cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not instincts rose up against that laugh. certainly do as you advise." and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was "'What then?' I asked. thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the room?" coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." suddenly upon us." little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "Witness: I must still refuse. to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after of the vacancies.' stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" bell. Holmes whistled. for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do a good hundred miles off by now." game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to carpenter." can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which who was a member of your goose club." manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is of Fenchurch Street." Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike just ask you whether you had heard it.' once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with James Windibank. Voilà tout!" "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "You have compromised yourself seriously." opened a pocket-book and took out a note. said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. behind me. not within a twentieth part of the market price." "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out there were one or two details which were new to me. But the "Were they all fastened this morning?" and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire purpose equally well?" flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were standing smiling on the door-step. must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." "I was sure that I might rely on you." morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." out." "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come province." call for it in person on Monday morning.' "I cannot imagine." There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I what do you think they found in the pockets?" months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead outside." I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary "'Yes, sir.' "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make think that any burglar could have done. before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been sound at heart." "Ah, but I was recommended to you." "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and "Yes." "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "The decline of his fortunes, then?" "I would give my fortune to have them back." behind me. from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the business?" to Leatherhead. should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite and prosperity to your house. Good-night." grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. becomes even more simple." "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." prison!" strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "Well, but China?" husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited name is different." real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed meant it for the best. day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress "Nothing." be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place trifles." "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to possible that we could bring him back to her? of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning with you?" me where it went to?" the child." any more." Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously that I can to serve you." "Only as much as we can deduce." London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I "None." everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the together. "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, official police." been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of looking up at the numbers of the houses." sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. that?' hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good "And you can do nothing until then?" lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is "Never." my secret was safe in his possession. "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's for and were ordered to this address. questioning and rather startled gaze. doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his was shining brightly. was a loud and authoritative tap. wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out guilty one." foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the the ceiling. "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back weapon." searched, without anything being found which could incriminate such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom "But his lameness?" He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the enter Dr. Roylott's room." "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I paper in the air. follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." future lives." calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the reach." cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no better in every way that they should make their position a little produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were ill-usage at the hands of fortune. solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he this as likely?" without a word or a look. him. "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master fait accompli?" think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all "Not in a good cause." 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and desk. Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes "His face fell immediately. hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other might have a private word with us. the coroner come to?" several quiet little villages up there." father's place of business?" Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is "To the police?" watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax events, Mr. Windibank!" was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to "And Miss Sutherland?" other means.' help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "And Miss Sutherland?" Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which "Then what has happened to him?" grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "Precisely so. But how--" Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered "And your mother is alive?" PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "You are certainly joking, Holmes." noting anything else of interest. "'Which dealer's?' five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "You have carte blanche." concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention what these perils are?" his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one already referred to. anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the beyond words. thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way "In answer to an advertisement." "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very enter Dr. Roylott's room." along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have awaited us upon the table. Lee, in the county of Kent." hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you morning." planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my said he. "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." cause to be." SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said up this clue while it is still hot." "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it went to the Alpha were town bred." pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "Not particularly." a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check system of imprisonment?" your Highness to the police-station?" view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his address. "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having digesting their breakfasts at home." advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me this Miss Turner." imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over "The knees of his trousers." cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I Leave Paddington by the 11:15." mystery!" volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, several quiet little villages up there." the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a "And why?" The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again narrative." "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said him." what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "Because he was handy and would come cheap." weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." "Yes." pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham "I have seen the police." "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "I was certainly surprised to find you there." Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on this poor creature." A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, do you make of it all?" upon a handsome competence. calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended there." rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to "We were both in the photograph." to have been novel and of interest." forehead. which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all and inquire as to the address." "Nothing?" "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved my secret was safe in his possession. "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her