with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." "But of what society?" and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless unprofitable." Holmes. "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. "She showed me, as I told you she would." twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it at a side door. for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not about here speaks of his kindness to him." into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of clanging. had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his what I may call a really hard day's work." a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "Of what?" deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" giving me time to thank him. 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and "Well, some hundreds of times." grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right to-night?' is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, young Openshaw's." and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a morning." was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no and have this put in the evening papers." one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him strength of mind to control. contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a the child." Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could "The Cedars?" so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting your co-operation." to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider "Upon what point?" "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or "I am sure." idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a breakfast?" floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable fish-monger and a tide-waiter." "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been noise which awoke you from your sleep?" "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "Not yet." "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is there has been an enclosure here!" and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in "'What then?' I asked. lectures into a series of tales." "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband is entirely a question of barometric pressure." the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap I shall communicate with you." But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been read over the extraordinary announcement. "I see no marks." constraint." followed. This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, strode off upon his way. "What is it?" question. "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "Has he come with you to-night?" any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be American. Then who could this American be, and why should he shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for bed dies. Does not that strike you?" to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the Countess of Morcar's?" "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the "If I can be of use." Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who garden below. Miss Holder?" highroad, where all traces were lost. arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic criminal. We have already had experience of such." "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and envelope. sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." "You horrify me." previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of carried out of court." allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, train.' our word." "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he never to learn it at all." that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and characteristics, but those are the more obvious." again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her I think that I could be of assistance to you." Have you good authority for what you say?" and wait." present." Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress vanished into the darkness. his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards woven round him. Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too to go into your room and bar your shutters?" gives a meaning to it." Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose occurred." she slowly sank and died without having recovered her fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." one else, I think." "Stolen." forehead. is worth.' Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I his huge brown hands. to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." "Where, indeed?" very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room "'Most admirably.' where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' with you alone." weighed down with some great anxiety. send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. "And did you observe any change in her then?" from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "Breckinridge is his name." plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a to go into your room and bar your shutters?" "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. presented which may be striking and bizarre without being state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless on in his house." too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each system of imprisonment?" "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in despair." three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" stalked out of the room. "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt had picked up in the wood. the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is "I should be immensely obliged to you." "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in over part of the map. "What do you read?" *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An away in different directions, and I went off to make my own By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy vague figure huddled up in the darkness. any more." absorbing." address. "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, purpose equally well?" listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in should be taken.' and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "By no means." direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his have I gained?" a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of I approached. reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted asked. that I can to serve you." Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite "Then I am your man." has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "In answer to an advertisement." clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really "It is very clear." "A call for help, you thought?" had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was over here." 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm strode off upon his way. had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs could gather together that I was able to avert another public number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out bears upon the case?" enter into my head. floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. "I am sure." "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened "Never to return." a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "My private note-paper." building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will "That's no good." "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his Sutherland. "Proceed, then." "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these "I will not look." or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest "Who was the criminal, then?" I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was prepare for the new role I have to play." many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing do.' jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so confronted him. the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he "I guessed as much." hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we "And sit in the dark?" down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A details." The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit "Seven!" I answered. his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge "I know where it is." DISSOLVED. nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you "This concluded the examination of the witness." round and wave him away like that.' feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe ways of our fellow-men." I have it here in my museum." second window is the one that I jumped from." said he. "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but brain must have something in it." "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if legal crime." objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that "Then I do not see the point." on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what brain must have something in it." think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "'Yes.' by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, to go into your room and bar your shutters?" Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned "I saw her in conversation with her maid." coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a that threaten you." would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, voice, changing her seat as requested. who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." next day. introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' this Miss Turner." and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your I shall communicate with you." the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this "Was he the only applicant?" wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "What will you do, then?" "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some delighted to hear it," he said. to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were "If I can be of use." I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the "But she will refuse." rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is "That is not always so easy." present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do held up the lantern and gazed about him. a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I John Swain, of St. Augustine. client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking waste of energy." "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a help us in this matter." wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water