protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the The note was undated, and without either signature or address. go back?" "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "I will get her to show me." ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry "What will you say?" experiences." had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, "'Stolen!' he cried. not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of "When did she vanish, then?" "Dark enough and sinister enough." bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She mystery!" if only as a check to my own memory." "Then, as to money?" right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his sneer upon his pale face. the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of "By all means." 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "It was an hour's good drive." unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, "Awake, Watson?" he asked. confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been he bowed and left the room without another word. "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. to Leatherhead. practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back shall not find me ungrateful." over his head with a sweet womanly caress. "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church call for protection in the marriage market, for the present the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your right! Sit down and let us talk it over." "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, national property. I was determined that the law should have its his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I door?" doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. whether it answered to the description of any of their "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' bearing upon the case." and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham "It missed him, then?" think, you have already met." have I gained?" what is your own theory as to what took place?" years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in mysterious business." "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have union?" as this. Pray let me have the details." the room while you explain this matter?" formed some opinion?" old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the chambers. over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "One?" o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "'And the work?' "That's no good." "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not opened a pocket-book and took out a note. that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "Certainly." that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "I beg pardon." Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "'I shall certainly be there.' recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught were new raised from a basin. matter." "Tired-looking or fresh?" south, for the country is more deserted there." say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait "And what did you see?" red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age The telegram which we eventually received came late one night "What! a murderous attack?" of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just definite end. either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to "This concluded the examination of the witness." "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the "And is that all?" drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal pictures, libraries, or plate. "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew of Fenchurch Street." Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a call the police, let the police find what they can.' the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "Witness: Nothing definite. Pope's Court. wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily miles off. "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I if she died from some sudden fright." "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have hurried away. "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "Thank you. Pray proceed." "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again I took the paper from him and read as follows: whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. digesting their breakfasts at home." In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "Always." education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, ill-usage at the hands of fortune. salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK should be so warm over such a trifle." that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of http://gutenberg.net/license). time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do sake, don't!" the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and triumphant cloud from his cigarette. run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has ordinary clothes on?" certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do the general public were present, then?" cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a sooner or later she must fall a victim. retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that my room." "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain conceal it?" James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." "And that is--" Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "Yes, that is the Crown." ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this a room. the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "But to whom?" applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss "Yes." matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was even of instruction." urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away of a light. Miss Holder?" the driver. have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. to take care of herself." me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "Why did you pick him?" the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him you?" found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a "'Stolen!' he cried. "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by business?" rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so and it need not interfere very much with one's other days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this floor. once more on the important position which you have been fortunate than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought heavily into it. Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old breakfast and whispered something to her husband. in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four His name is Francis Prosper." Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the During two years I have had three consultations and one small pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean you do it in twenty minutes!' "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "You have but to name it." "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter suggested at once that there must be a communication between the was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his the Assizes." "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps Farm upon the left." second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, the salesman. building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders "None. Neville wrote those words." "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. at my own good fortune. opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is acted in my house last night?" volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he again, where I was soon asleep. would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' "What shall I do?" I held the little printed slip to the light. "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's a little more before I quite committed myself. stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "You have it, sir, just as it happened." remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be whether it answered to the description of any of their to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out "Upon what point?" "That is it on the dressing-table." sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "I cannot as yet see any connection." human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her or other trace. But how on earth--" We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an "But his lameness?" Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been "'Never.' hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were unprofitable." heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. "You are all wrong." he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing "I cannot imagine." this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed man. I know him from the photograph." it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your "'Why that?' I asks. they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "It was a confession," I ejaculated. "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' companion. "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington "No." only touch the interest." drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "The landlord of the Alpha." the devil!" has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found public press." be sorry for having acted so harshly." himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite "How about poison?" "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything "Why? What do you mean?" upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat new acquaintance to Baker Street. examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the "Why serious?" stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to before the coroner and the police-court." his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little made him keep the appointment." "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." prove to be little relation between the different incidents of was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of overpowering excitement and concern. are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a sake, don't!" "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned the warnings." examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to "Then the page we have seen--" "But how?" to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I,