secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. "'Yes.' with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "What will you say?" I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at your sleep?' sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that "And why?" my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." interest. They are important, you understand, without being girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. to that open window." both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a must be when I saw the door open.' years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken get her out of the way." which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be to-night?" I asked. quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand at home. on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." "Yes, the wine-cellar." facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was events, Mr. Windibank!" common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. your own bird, so if you wish--" "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. for securing the situation." "This photograph!" "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "I am sure." "What is it, then--a fire?" to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. stood on the top of it. "And you don't know his address?" before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first "It is true that I have been generally successful." "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up "I would give my fortune to have them back." "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now look dissatisfied." "My own seal." thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From "ARAT," I read. the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. furiously. "I cannot tell." approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared photograph?" John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over where we are going." and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. them present such singular features as the strange train of "And how did he make his money?" look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the locked. village inn over there?" "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, weighed down with some great anxiety. collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have again on its way. had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such "Never to return." floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush "An enemy?" "No, I had a dozen." papers must be those that are destroyed.' remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a suddenly upon us." the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its heavy and sharp instrument." "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what to some other building. "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You "No, thank goodness, she did not." you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in wedding?" of Fenchurch Street." were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The of your young ladies.' "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what gigantic client. instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the Foundation saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I vague figure huddled up in the darkness. footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from James Windibank. Voilà tout!" this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong maid will bring up your coffee." red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" late." his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite stalked out of the room. already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed key turn in the lock." it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away written. and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little derbies." chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the fait accompli?" charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and been able to understand it, in a very few words. the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just "It is very kind of you." possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the Leave Paddington by the 11:15." tell them apart.' she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, begin with, and I had not got mine yet." "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where "Just look it up, then." figure." "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. "'Where could I find him?' would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with "Yes." flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the congratulate you again." and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the empty. least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite to his chemical studies. He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "10th. John Swain cleared. "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not in his hands." to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever it." "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between stood on the top of it. manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to down in his armchair and closing his eyes. "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked developed." the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." Cross for the Continent." eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a closely." commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his "And your father? Did you tell him?" whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who "We must have a cab." and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say DAMAGE. of your young ladies.' was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "And from a noble client?" the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "There is the writing." door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted several quiet little villages up there." individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "Never to return." "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' lectures into a series of tales." "What! a murderous attack?" bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project But Holmes shook his head gravely. "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. empty. "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "ARAT," I read. closing the door. "'Certainly not.' Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes fuss that is made over them." explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the again on its way. "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, gone. handed it to him. "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon "Holmes, the busybody!" so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "Then what has happened to him?" protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for you do it in twenty minutes!' stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us existence." as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, "Yes?" afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had who was a member of your goose club." crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was of the efforts of the United States government and of the better "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, one of the states of the Union." habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." someone who had been in Australia." values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the "In what way?" asked Holmes. miles off. figure." "I have solved it." however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have presented which may be striking and bizarre without being prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and Leadenhall Street--and--" have had none more fantastic than this." voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss suggested at once that there must be a communication between the out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." "But you can know nothing of this?" "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "But what harm can there be in that?" "No good news?" "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "Pray continue your narrative." "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who "I shall be delighted." the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, and looked back. "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman the devil!" "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to II. I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good where she found matters as described by the last witness. surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. walking." delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody people don't know." "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "And how did you verify them?" instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning since then to throw any light upon what became of him." I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return not as remarkable as your advertisement." system of imprisonment?" my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation which we had just quitted. "And how?" "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite all?" had formerly been in part my own. Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this straightened it out again. ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay possible that we could bring him back to her? the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the case-book, which he consulted. and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes