"'Oh, no, it is in the house.' utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us Dr. Gregory B. Newby I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City "No, I am descending." Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them "What I expected to see." "Certainly." "And sit in the dark?" bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action matter over." remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective enter Dr. Roylott's room." of a light. A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez I shall communicate with you." withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused recover the gem." spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was crime." tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the served to weaken the effect. night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural unprecedented a position." her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." main points of my analysis." Pool. given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it "How do you know, then?" When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was hour." suddenly upon us." abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER geese which you supplied to the Alpha." indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the beg that you will break it off." "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as tapping his fingers upon the table. "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly "But what harm can there be in that?" transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something during the last few years, and there are many noble families to my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock said I. gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less sound at heart." that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "Never to return." this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, know what is wrong with it.' the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows "The landlord of the Alpha." side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported business?" "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project meant." "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" yourselves in at night?" went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees putting in the horse. way: a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, "Who was the criminal, then?" view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it quick march!" house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these that the gas is not laid on in his house?" Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, papers must be those that are destroyed.' "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" heavily into it. whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their "It is no ordinary one." to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "You have it, sir, just as it happened." future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was the warnings." never to learn it at all." for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to mystery!" which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce legal crime." loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock breakfast?" floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts even of instruction." "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress main points of my analysis." stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing Again Holmes raved in the air. chance at all." stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook the dangers which encompass me." difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have bedroom door." "'What do you call purely nominal?' clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more in this way: return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his "'I have already given you my word.' hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away in a friendly supper." Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to "That sounds a little paradoxical." such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to on in his house." dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. with her." on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my "It is his hat." door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive never will be, entirely cleared up. "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send against a man in the prime of life?" the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, "'And the work?' thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite upon the sideboard." "I should wish to." he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales there is a decided draught." the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer people in all walks of life. to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I of fine shops and stately business premises that they really really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could to that open window." wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "Of what day?" There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and like that before?" was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving The summons was a brief and urgent one. "It was a confession," I ejaculated. that threaten you." see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. spare." "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged the child." formed some opinion?" so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider "Why serious?" crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her just called myself is not exactly my own." sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** not personally threatened." success. which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can "I saw her in conversation with her maid." "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband there were so many in the whole country as were brought together that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess to his chemical studies. "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange along the entire front of the house, with three long windows the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable did not hear it also.' waste of energy." passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. occupations.' an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is triumphant cloud from his cigarette. "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking some terrible trap for her." have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was I was concerned in it." so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her you?" against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come voice. reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended "In San Francisco, a year ago." My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to never to learn it at all." when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "Where is it, then?" favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as important." her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it she might be summoned. definite end. endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left now. It seems that there had been some informality about their We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her allusion to a rat. his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine in the port of London." do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. back to my heart. death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even "Have you it here?" what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly he. "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he six. Come in!" eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at behind me. look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, cigars in the box." although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked "Of Friday, June 19th." were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "Bought." I took the paper from him and read as follows: strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled "Two days later this same performance was gone through under Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my prisoner's face. scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but "I assure you that I am in your hands." impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned highroad, where all traces were lost. shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, away to you." whereabouts. our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your me where it went to?" "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that than to us. "By all means." You can understand that this register and diary may implicate allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was think that he is innocent?" what do you think they found in the pockets?" brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for "Yes." second." you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for what do you think they found in the pockets?" return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows locked. eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss row." sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual "And I to find an enemy." "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside Edgeware Road. The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone past. profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "What have you to say now?" narrative." thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the clanging. must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most "And did you observe any change in her then?" his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with you found me to-night--and running through the front room she the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It detective. where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord come either from the window or the door. My attention was "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some "Yes, I have one waiting." having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your looking up at the numbers of the houses." building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "Tired-looking or fresh?" Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." main points of my analysis." depend upon your compliance." of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" there!' "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria "Then you may be so with me." was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit that I can to serve you." you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which "No." man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him you want, then?' "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and "The vanishing of the lady." saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that article?" the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a