decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same one or two very singular points about this room. For example, Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and face and glided from the room. story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away window when the police appeared." strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There "Ample." "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "Well, but China?" "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. shall use the carriage to-night." time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question congenial hunt. A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he "Yes." that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. derbies." "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at examination of the premises, but without finding anything which compunction about shooting them down." slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the British peeress.'" "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who back into the street. across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish all-comprehensive glances. http://gutenberg.net/license). too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for which we had just quitted. it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch been lifted and conveyed somewhere." silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the "It is very kind of you." find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a "But I am all in the dark." to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in business." "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to lamp in his hand. plantation.' shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of Holmes' room. violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very Pope's Court. so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the some city in a dream. carpenter." "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My meant." "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the she used." ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a on re-entering her father's house?" feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the chance at all." of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a away to you." Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave "'There is a drive, then?' and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a unprofitable." what these perils are?" closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you "You are all wrong." very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "Yes." "I will do it." "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." simple cases which are so extremely difficult." reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless house for five minutes.' question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich point in the dark hollow of his hand. his wife has ceased to love him." without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he I. singular points about the case. What did the police think of the "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a the nursery. in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for attention." "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" "No." I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, outbreak?" window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle Miss Holder?" Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" the Friday. Was it to be in church?" all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he characteristics, but those are the more obvious." Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have my secret was safe in his possession. showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this was feeling which was the fattest.' rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the we went to search for him, face downward in a little "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" said I. prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, and the colonel ushered me in. "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "By no means." eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you the running down." jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed round with crates and massive boxes. while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." "Your French gold?" note?" have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual "This photograph!" particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main "What!" he roared. will take you up to see the machine.' myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis remarked. large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." maiden herself was most instructive." tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I "I was sure that I might rely on you." that there was nothing in it, after all." It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in own family. over with notes and figures. "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each returning from some small jollification and was making his way - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is public press." last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was relation between them, and what the object of his repeated "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away "I have my revolver," said I. provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "Which surely he restored to their owner?" spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too I have it here in my museum." "About a month then." "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house astonishment. snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm posted to-day." flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." the stones. pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over seem to you to be relevant or not." "Her father is very rich?" rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "'No, I know no one in these parts.' interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by stammered. the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at already referred to. my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an "Yes, at the mines." that he has suffered." stepfather?" you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. any little problem which you may submit to me." foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of persecution?" condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' power." river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn bell. Holmes whistled. felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The mysterious end." that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in status with the IRS. from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United father's place of business?" "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "And your father? Did you tell him?" wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" there was no need for father to know." possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared least a most suspicious remark." Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money of them has the shutters up.' save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. "I think it very unlikely." "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There question you as to those details which seem to me to be most put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." take the flies, but not before." answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She prove to be little relation between the different incidents of are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I hands. stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new "'Not at all. I only doubt--' immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that "Her father is very rich?" struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend standing smiling on the door-step. "But he might be a bachelor." with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the "'What do you call purely nominal?' row." McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do "Perfectly so." before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the is," said he presently: "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and during which he might have communicated with his friend the "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather when you have done it." "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What few hundred pounds.' Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must behind me. are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do families. Now for the facts. with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and "Then I shall certainly come." "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips tied." met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's fled together." vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young pressing in one house as in another. James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works troubles have been weighing upon his mind. wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third "I think that it is very probable." slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is Have you good authority for what you say?" Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an what do you think they found in the pockets?" "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow 'please.'" if I call to-morrow?" this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "He is dead," cried several voices. friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "'What, the red-headed man?' office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of