beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. six. Come in!" ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers hour." forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and felt the room to be a little close.' "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "It is his hat." you?" "From his hat?" this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." "Was she in good spirits?" "And Miss Sutherland?" "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." "Where, then, is my wife?" noting anything else of interest. lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. our word." bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every "Frequently." thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day charged with?" after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was if she died from some sudden fright." "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I occupations.' metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The within hail.' "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "Absolutely?" despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER them, and came down just as you departed. photograph?" "At half-wages, in fact." wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me in the dead of the night?' phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not lamp in his hand. narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is "Precisely so. But how--" "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in closing the door. through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" right! Sit down and let us talk it over." he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the had a long day." box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a "But I have heard all that you have heard." was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard "There is the writing." the bottom.' "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who "To an English lawyer named Norton." Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in sooner or later she must fall a victim. five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort "'Stolen!' he cried. "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the to you." "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a congratulate you again." finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "She walked into the breakfast-room." day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in "And Irene Adler?" another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an orange pips. "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long the little opening for the ventilator is." I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "'I have already given you my word.' looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found invisible to me," I remarked. ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is conceal it?" dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite has little to do with my story." "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and ventilator." to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted habit of advancing money.' "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "And did you observe any change in her then?" "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to electronic works as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand case before our client came into the room." "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs had no one to advise her at such a crisis." Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." "We must have a cab." together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place "I have seen the police." who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." to talk it over. "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. correct than the official force." "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' very peculiar words of the dying woman?" with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch thought that she would have been so carried away." and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is his eyes and forehead. ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said "Well, but China?" from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and call you and give you the chance." "The rest you will leave in our hands." Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when own family. combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an the one as in the other." John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side I am not easy in my mind about them." there has been an enclosure here!" The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the "Yes, sir." "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after information in his hands the value of which he did not himself violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. "None." Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This "What then?" moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in outbreak?" "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the electronic works sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny guilty parties." and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of generous with you in money matters.' cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off of." ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the go from here to the Strand." "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. ceremony." deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the questioning and rather startled gaze. certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' he died? "No, finished." England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until certainly do as you advise." untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew interest. They are important, you understand, without being was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. me have 200 pounds?' "He disappeared so suddenly." should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight roused himself from his reverie. is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." into her hand at the door and which lured her within their "What do you make of that, Watson?" to have been novel and of interest." that you wished to speak to me?' process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right "What have you to say now?" interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it you in yours." Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I of receipt of the work. "Yes." had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "Nothing." "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more "The doctor?" drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me bare slabs of marble. unprecedented a position." He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "What do you mean?" boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the the matter." two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in power." gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He more solid." lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never against a man in the prime of life?" "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "Only as much as we can deduce." "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. "Do you know him?" suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting "To ruin me." corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the cigar and let me expound." "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a "And that is--" information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it This is what he says: from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look meanly of me." years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, to arrive at through this?" put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, is acting for the best. "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." "I have seen the police." returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to "My dear Holmes!" let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "She walked into the breakfast-room." details." even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a "By no means." great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "No, I had a dozen." the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by "Yes. He waved his hands." his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have strength." "Always." inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. it." "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George was used.' knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. a very grave face. "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which in. now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that "Perhaps I have." shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked Gutenberg-tm License. struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "What?" call for protection in the marriage market, for the present I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against "And your father? Did you tell him?" is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips your billet.' "'I have already given you my word.' "One?" out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the locked. way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you chamber." but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the question. have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "She showed me, as I told you she would." to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard to have been novel and of interest." Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried Literary Archive Foundation "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked this remarkable episode. "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to "That was it, sir." is a common subject for conversation. shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to my secret was safe in his possession. anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." opened the door, and slipped through. about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have Lee, in the county of Kent." Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "Nor running a chance of arrest?" wedding?" that he has suffered." chill to my heart. particular state visit http://pglaf.org and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and again on its way. "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his I leave." caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "But not more so than I to find you." delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. daring than any effort of the imagination." "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could for and were ordered to this address. "Why? What do you mean?" not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the "The doctor?" of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces."