distinguish the words: allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable "No, but the enclosure is." "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over "Was your sister dressed?" "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal in darkness. Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper never came back." conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was do you make of it all?" "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight ordinary clothes on?" "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away father's young wife. offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you "But she could not love him." was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his generous with you in money matters.' gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else new duties?' "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience it." gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in never came back." cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second her also." turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the matter." "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so "You horrify me!" warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of pity, because in other respects you would really have done very believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See "Come in!" said Holmes. including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window away in different directions, and I went off to make my own PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My "You have it, sir, just as it happened." The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I "Get out!" said he. same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may "The decline of his fortunes, then?" "They are typewritten," I remarked. considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." bonnet, and went out." you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging for securing the situation." clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very business." In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the that before taking the final step I should like to submit the The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond me where it went to?" "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY the coronet in his hand?" him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens asked. across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. "Who by?" this Miss Turner." "No. His orders were to stay in the house." knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the "Yes." Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole "And your father? Did you tell him?" smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the into the room. I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do speckled band?" absolutely follow my advice in every respect." of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day "Very well, sir. And this stone?" "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a and effective." "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a as noiselessly as she had come. the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your cheerful." "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "No bad?" it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, disturbance in my wife." difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be closing the door. And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. families. Now for the facts. "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of again." me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. woman who has had her own way to make in the world. "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On Foundation "None." Sutherland?" return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little only touch the interest." and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly success. frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely of." weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The people in all walks of life. traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it what these perils are?" crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would I shall continue with my miserable story. Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question about here speaks of his kindness to him." paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently papers must be those that are destroyed.' place, I think that there is good ground to think that the my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" "And you can do nothing until then?" had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done or in danger--" station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a States. you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "If so, much may have happened between." the iron safe, which he closed upon it. the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one him to be an active member of the medical profession." her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the knowledge of the world." arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and of his shoulders. deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is "'What, the red-headed man?' hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that shall not find me ungrateful." Henry Baker is a member." "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start License. You must require such a user to return or Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been "'There is a drive, then?' these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "Never to return." will be renamed. could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily be.' child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going "Thank you. Pray proceed." "Very. But will he see it?" expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" brought there to personate someone, and the real person is charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' even of instruction." footfalls from the street. "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat "None." analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while "This photograph!" Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, that he will be back before evening." anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped key of the affair now." used to be." dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored nights." downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you other lovers by making love himself." "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give in the dead of the night?' very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the be sorry for having acted so harshly." "How can you tell that?" Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss "How are you getting on?" they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And putting in the horse. creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, "You are certainly joking, Holmes." the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "Yes, sir." Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which "Dirty?" scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but it with his own hands." and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting as this. Pray let me have the details." partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time "Witness: Nothing definite. faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those bore every mark of being an average commonplace British maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "And the murderer?" "Did your wife hear all this?" minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other "What! You do not mean bodies?" explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." You can understand that this register and diary may implicate past. The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There cheerful." objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that at home. d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my money should be paid at once.' "None. Neville wrote those words." not use it unless it is absolutely needed." have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to "No. What a strange idea!" from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. British peeress.'" "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two way in everything. But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of "'You cannot say what it was?' breakfast?" I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must "Stolen, then." the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce on re-entering her father's house?" American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and disturbance in my wife." "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. it? Did I buy the geese off you?" the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing it." the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very with you alone." keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both "You are all wrong." reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to "Where to?" your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." if only as a check to my own memory." it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. Serpentine Avenue. Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and conceal it?" breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and strong and stiff." whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham "No sign of it?" I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with "Oh, yes, easily." any." "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing already been minutely examined." "What is it?" forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The What do you deduce from it?" did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, late!' "Dr. Becher's." "I will do it." cigars in their mouths. that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you "Not yet." "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I and glanced through. used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" felt the room to be a little close.' grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his "Perhaps I have." manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. cigars in their mouths. "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his I shall continue with my miserable story. "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of