black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he skylight. to Leatherhead. time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has yards of it?' wanted for ourselves." It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left over with notes and figures. "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward begin with, and I had not got mine yet." it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' photograph?" giving me time to thank him. the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet disappearance of these gems?" as he folded up the epistle. my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up From what you have told me I think that it is possible that we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "Who by?" name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a morning." shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" point in the dark hollow of his hand. to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my photograph?" "It is possible." week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of Pool. have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of Munro.' world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my could not account in any way for the presence of the missing your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "Yes." you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "Yes." of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall Arthur Conan Doyle seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me "And what then?" left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the breakfast." "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble the warnings." its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your not, dad?" she asked. and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police generous with you in money matters.' were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "You have carte blanche." "Will you go?" "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out there has been an enclosure here!" "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight you came in." not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to The King stared at him in amazement. the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted and effective." There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, "And how?" come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a and files of the old papers, following the future career of every houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then someone who had been in Australia." was lame." if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was fear." practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." Holmes' thin, eager face. for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we I leave." this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face house for five minutes.' old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to developed." little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. down in his armchair and closing his eyes. and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in woman who has had her own way to make in the world. "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my quite distinctive." you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton indeed happy." Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I some water from a caraffe. not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham future lives." brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and bill, which interests me deeply." "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for with frightened eyes at his accuser. c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the man. throat." "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and swore that no one else had been in the front room during the above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a success. "I don't say that. Perhaps." "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate "Pray do so." gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very of Fenchurch Street." prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked plantation.' never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all passage and a tap at the door. my friend's incisive reasoning. his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, "'And the work?' broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I redistribution. to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long weighed down with some great anxiety. he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It astonishment. twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the may never be exposed to such a temptation." swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country deduce something from that?" little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has "Certainly, madam." attention." "You have a clue?" "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" down in his armchair and closing his eyes. the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite article?" and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "What then?" recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." nonsense.' "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us since then to throw any light upon what became of him." depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your outsides of the windows. who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the arrangements." "You were travelling in the States?" method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and taking in every detail of the apartment. "Certainly." however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "Then I am your man." intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of "It was a confession," I ejaculated. we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs all-comprehensive glances. to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely room had already been engaged for us. "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. which should have the effect of calling the attention of the "Your sister is dead, then?" already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "Yes, but only for you and me." you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. "What will you say?" "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella papers must be those that are destroyed.' hurried by. grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no completely overtopped every other consideration that we both he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have room. said I. she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while I took the paper from him and read as follows: ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we "It is possible." fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "That sounds a little paradoxical." "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, point our research must commence, and we will begin it by box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father four million human beings all jostling each other within the PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he "Very truly yours, copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you records." face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of have had none more fantastic than this." most important business. It is probable that he will be away all 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. side. the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, purpose equally well?" characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well head. So long, then!" would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this happened." very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. to have that photograph." We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was chill to my heart. all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that tell him that I know him to be innocent." sound at heart." would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the that he has suffered." "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the "'Where to?' as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a charge against him will break down." grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would if I call to-morrow?" "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something will be renamed. formed some opinion?" Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg in a very precise fashion." chance at all." were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been you in yours." Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran "Then how many are there?" head. So long, then!" "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." recall any case within my experience which looked at the first "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his Leave Paddington by the 11:15." the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by have not had my rubber." to you." "And why?" Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. married her." "It was." "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first "Entirely." slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, of the one which your family is now devouring." it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we