drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. "Then I can wait in the next room." beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. occupations.' tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." himself. "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One is four-and-twenty." would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret said he. "Then the page we have seen--" keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, green of the new foliage. have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece "To ruin me." window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the been." "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry her also." "Do you know him?" rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" "'Most admirably.' and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that believe that I should never have any practice at all. connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the approach us with offers to donate. particular state visit http://pglaf.org into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. fire. You quite follow me?" to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all "'No, I know no one in these parts.' returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I sound at heart." compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried gbnewby@pglaf.org "Yes, certainly." rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." hour." "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg remarked. of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and it." seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn "'Yes, sir.' "He disappeared so suddenly." his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he "Very much so." effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, chill to my heart. upon a handsome competence. Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he "I am all attention, madam." will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the families. Now for the facts. see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A power." were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very place, I think that there is good ground to think that the and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking have had none more fantastic than this." the south-west, I see." "You think so, too?" sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, morning." "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be then?" liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee "So I am. Very much so." gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted "On Monday." to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it out." a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace I approached. sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, four million human beings all jostling each other within the which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I good for you to do.' shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was call you and give you the chance." months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he Lee, in the county of Kent." Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire American. Then who could this American be, and why should he Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely remarked. My friend smiled. we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot "'What, the red-headed man?' surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking "But you can know nothing of this?" these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "I am about to be married." "At half-wages, in fact." absorbing." once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. him!" "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I recall any case within my experience which looked at the first assist you in forming an opinion." "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. lost his Christmas dinner." would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. have had none more fantastic than this." upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe brought there to personate someone, and the real person is repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among gbnewby@pglaf.org of Fenchurch Street." you understand?" and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible instincts rose up against that laugh. be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call "By train from Waterloo." "That also I could fathom." could go. self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of "Which surely he restored to their owner?" from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in said I. "Yes." sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms events, Mr. Windibank!" very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was nights." should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were depend upon my doing so.' any." for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the late." the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "Where, then, is my wife?" had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was "One of his hands." "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be direction." "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's "My photograph." have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that other, as fresh and trim as possible. struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had his eyes and forehead. "You are all wrong." of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "His face fell immediately. "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "And your mother is alive?" round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing perplexity from it to my illustrious client. your bag." "Yes, that is the Crown." Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless all-comprehensive glances. Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little constraint." Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely "Then I can wait in the next room." out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This you?' "What!" he roared. Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was visitors." I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I posted to-day." firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her "Then I am your man." "'And the work?' Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" the house with me." your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah "No, thank goodness, she did not." some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch official police." though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. even so self-evident a thing as that." "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it strength in the others." the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform beyond words. wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning "You were travelling in the States?" than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as mystery!" "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite "The King of Scandinavia." cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' money should be paid at once.' the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, province." key turn in the lock." elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the prisoner's face. and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from very peculiar words of the dying woman?" yet." "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My Heh?' right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his Serpentine Avenue. would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw "It is half-past ten now." "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. me upon any point which I do not make clear." truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, always that they were such commands as a lady might with stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "Yes, the wine-cellar." "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, perplexity from it to my illustrious client. fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went "At half-wages, in fact." broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into You want to know what became of those geese?" One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was "Yes." that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. least a fellow-countryman. "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such as noiselessly as she had come. expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "Because he was handy and would come cheap." to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "Yes." Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned hard-headed British jury." he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously "Only as much as we can deduce." excitement. followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied your troubles." Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see "Was she in good spirits?" the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by This is what he says: and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it danger is over." homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us matters immensely." spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were "None." rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you have an American origin." although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid as noiselessly as she had come. "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, upon a handsome competence. "Nor running a chance of arrest?" than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the prison!" tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, said he. face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in about here speaks of his kindness to him." They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just Dr. Gregory B. Newby expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "It surprised me." the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the the very letters. But what is this written above them?' "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing "Always." "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' three fields round his house, and there he would take his shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in second." discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot for the market.' companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." to Leatherhead. "Ah!" "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a exactly what you advise." "No good news?" dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered that he will be back before evening." suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in