"Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him Doctor, of the paper and the date." the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, man. "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the tension within him. saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which "Did your wife hear all this?" "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the that he will be back before evening." analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss What do you deduce from it?" "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the "Pray do so." "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see lips." It was close upon four before the door opened, and a "'Certainly not.' beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "Of what day?" "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the tail." "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The "I would pay ten." companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do vague figure huddled up in the darkness. Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, "You saw the ventilator, too?" red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. sparkled upon his finger. spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John singular points about the case. What did the police think of the poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I over his head with a sweet womanly caress. Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a later, upon the night of May 2nd." knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the which was all perfectly true. back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" "You think so, too?" if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "What office?" either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was daring than any effort of the imagination." afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's "Dark enough and sinister enough." after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with yet." plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "No, I had a dozen." person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was pity, because in other respects you would really have done very "What then?" my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to details should find their way into the papers. Inspector charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This Dr. Gregory B. Newby and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your the roots. are, I think, all that we need." was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you will take you up to see the machine.' "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, "Precisely so. But how--" Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving hands. steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he laugh and put his lips to my ear. France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the you." that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the formed some opinion?" Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he address. "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall "But his lameness?" a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. During two years I have had three consultations and one small The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, of the one which your family is now devouring." do." that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "I was afraid that you were engaged." the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I call for protection in the marriage market, for the present aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "This concluded the examination of the witness." out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! that?' It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through hardly wander." "You saw the ventilator, too?" assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I and effective." leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. had picked up in the wood. "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you considering the formidable letters which were received by himself notes," he said. lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that row." police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined "There are none." cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I was it brought him the coronet? lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a sooner or later she must fall a victim. obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler villagers almost as much as their master. suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "I will not look." matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that the window, rose as we entered. "I think that I had better go, Holmes." me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience business." think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent strong reason behind." yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until States. nonsense.' The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his easy-going way." A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp "A confidential servant?" rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has have established a very serious case against the son of the drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new of the way of danger. the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "Won't it ring?" morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, that?' tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted happened." and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was hopeless attempt at recovering them." until night should bring an explanation. 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid to go into your room and bar your shutters?" again on its way. thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard "Yes." really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and are windows in it, of course?" perplexity from it to my illustrious client. any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. cigar and let me expound." that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his lost nothing by them." it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two just ask you whether you had heard it.' bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the fear." uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I open." face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking "May I see it?" to miss it." learned something! Where are the gems?" "Absolutely none." providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the sneer upon his pale face. "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the point in the dark hollow of his hand. owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "Never." of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such were wasted." provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little hopeless attempt at recovering them." than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey to you." "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking "No, thank goodness, she did not." It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking "What shall I do?" mysterious end." greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the an introduction to him?" sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, spark where all is dark to me." connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." acquaintance?" be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all but preventing her from injuring another. "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, night.' said he. something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "I should like to see him very much." practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the morning." 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working it. "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main business matters.' him. sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where were wasted." the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "You were travelling in the States?" any little problem which you may submit to me." are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us to you." better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up late!' not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" him to be an active member of the medical profession." 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and his knees, staring into the fire. family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a Gutenberg-tm License. "And you thought he was pulled back?" We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "He is still with you, I presume?" "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "'And what are they worth?' I asked. records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. "That was it, sir." If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. families. Now for the facts. matter." pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who is entirely a question of barometric pressure." Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from the iron safe, which he closed upon it. said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend John Swain, of St. Augustine. Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is I held the little printed slip to the light. might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me province." was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good case-book, which he consulted. "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." "But I have heard all that you have heard." "Will you go?" she has been waylaid. There has been no result." some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found "Then I am your man." "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us "And on what day did he meet his death?" practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's the bottom.' "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. the morning and make my own way in the world.' pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" His smile broadened. is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of "'What, the red-headed man?' his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, straighten it?" "How did you trace it, then?" retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "I assure you that I am in your hands." words came to my lips. I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger forehead. "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and "Pray continue your narrative." "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, pity, because in other respects you would really have done very Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to bedroom door." agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then