the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "You have compromised yourself seriously." "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one here." listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a me. You must get home instantly and act." stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt John Swain, of St. Augustine. "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she what is your own theory as to what took place?" the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, was not a bird to be seen there. "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back this Miss Turner." We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in the coronet in his hands?" written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a "Entirely." akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has because she had spent so short a time in this country that she the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention "No?" "Her father is very rich?" laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight "Ten will be early enough." "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my that?' if only as a check to my own memory." delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than case-book, which he consulted. meant it for the best. dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of hereditary King of Bohemia." of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what in this note: that I can to serve you." is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. passage and a tap at the door. was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which "My private note-paper." hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I be sorry for having acted so harshly." "I think that I had better go, Holmes." better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." information in his hands the value of which he did not himself when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her a room. stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear "I was sure that I might rely on you." "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest to his chemical studies. that, and I came down." stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are strong and stiff." "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view closely." "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and "'What, the red-headed man?' inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the he bowed and left the room without another word. "Yes." him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her sound at heart." you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his "Yes." "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in "But she will refuse." spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. true." "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. hour?' was a perfect sample of the class. undoubtedly my uncle's." and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the and your relations to her." he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are gone. "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, "I do." "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and "Not him." humiliation." strong reason behind." affection." carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had giving me time to thank him. "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had impression behind it as though a window had gently closed have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather death." His name is Francis Prosper." waste of energy." stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her was once confined in the cab my mission was practically "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle notes," he said. during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a floor. As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." "No. His orders were to stay in the house." so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, you, my dear young lady?' dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. and laid it on the table. "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting cheerful." That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a "And how did you verify them?" forecastle of an emigrant ship. thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the "No, thank goodness, she did not." about here speaks of his kindness to him." He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. sentimental considerations in the background which would induce you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove "You have it, sir, just as it happened." when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back the ceiling. permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still "But how will you look?" exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic she might be summoned. have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo roused himself from his reverie. which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet have accepted such a situation. my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was "What are they?" new duties?' them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his intrusion of other matters." this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her hour." all-comprehensive glances. he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not "I will do it." "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense figure." the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, to surprise her." money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with "Pray tell us what has happened to you." It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or details." which I could not give. He asked for Alice. to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "Yes." as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of read over the extraordinary announcement. most important business. It is probable that he will be away all jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life tell them apart.' "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door Farm upon the left." dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. stood on the top of it. wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me The King stared at him in amazement. quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" have established a very serious case against the son of the "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "The best possible." bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and again before evening." whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a weigh very heavily upon my conscience." of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." fashion which was peculiar to him. breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare in my life." that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." shall not find me ungrateful." "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. "'Why that?' I asks. advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of "And now?" He raised his hand. reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story into her hand at the door and which lured her within their four million human beings all jostling each other within the and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "You saw the ventilator, too?" which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his "One horse?" interjected Holmes. rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were "Well, but China?" "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the "And your father? Did you tell him?" and put his glass in his pocket. of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave writers could invent nothing more crude." very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort "Not in a good cause." evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid nights." could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room "To the police?" "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so to-night?" I asked. married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save was once confined in the cab my mission was practically imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "Well, some hundreds of times." it? Did I buy the geese off you?" all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length "It looks newer than the other things?" nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who Holmes' face clouded over. "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had asked with his eyes open. struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, the coronet at all injured?" confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "It goes to the housekeeper's room." sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As "That is unusual in a young girl." accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his The police have openly confessed that they can at present make standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you "I am all attention, madam." "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive second window is the one that I jumped from." one of them." "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "Yes, they were peculiar boots." was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending was not a bird to be seen there. veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and narrative." "What shall I do?" furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong train from Paddington which would bring you there at about before, for it was considerably after midnight. would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming "My photograph." "On Monday." this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "Which are?" over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he "'You doubt its value?' he asked. methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other waste of energy." great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the system of imprisonment?" should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such may never be exposed to such a temptation." "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own detective. figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of *** START: FULL LICENSE *** journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. "So I heard. You have him here?" to affect your life." would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and points in connection with it which never have been, and probably again, where I was soon asleep. is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike frequently gained my first real insight into the character of correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "Nor running a chance of arrest?" down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone companion imperturbably. became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those acted in my house last night?" dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up dramatic, in fact." sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she means taking possession of that which another person has a prior sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "You heard nothing yourself last night?" journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the key of the affair now." young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note "But who is he?" metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good "Very well, sir. And this stone?" cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. laugh and put his lips to my ear. battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble papers." keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I "That is it on the dressing-table." "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" have had none more fantastic than this." became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger "She will not sell." "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that "Can I be of assistance?" understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a to where he stood hid behind the curtain. infinite languor in his face. the coroner come to?" mystery." being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in lost his Christmas dinner." "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' light and attacked it." and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would