perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, business at Coburg Square is serious." to that open window." "'Certainly not. But why?' "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both his eyes and forehead. who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a "One horse?" interjected Holmes. broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and the inner apartment." James Windibank. Voilà tout!" hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own intrusion of other matters." hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his pound a week." "What can it mean?" I gasped. though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon the matter?" house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself went to the Alpha were town bred." not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." searched, without anything being found which could incriminate dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near the Red-headed League." meant." Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and make me his representative both with the servants and with the fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your "Where, then?" make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. You want to know what became of those geese?" they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had now. It seems that there had been some informality about their had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him the best of training." tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and was once confined in the cab my mission was practically photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. "But what harm can there be in that?" drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was paper in the air. only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and his forehead." "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced giving me time to thank him. "Yes, sir." down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then out." British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is that I am arrested." the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies country, and eventually married, without anyone having a you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, "I do." constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to "It may not come to that," said Holmes. right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which "But his left-handedness." King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater of it with the greatest attention. to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "It is possible." of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still "It surprised me." "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will "Yes." Leave Paddington by the 11:15." star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of noble correspondent could be. in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "Then the page we have seen--" "And now?" I asked. advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who danger is over." "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I outsides of the windows. "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "The rest you will leave in our hands." myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it ran thus: the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was done what I asked you, Jones?" "Nor running a chance of arrest?" your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was weapon." league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some telegram would bring me down to your help." third from London." "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have "I should wish to." princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "I would pay ten." directors, with the result that you have seen." sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to gives a meaning to it." "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "And your father? Did you tell him?" "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to "And on what day did he meet his death?" spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said "But what will you do?" "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door "And what did you learn from him?" I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "Did he not advertise?" man. I know him from the photograph." heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in exactly what you advise." "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to Pope's Court, Fleet Street." met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, ready to-morrow?' been." events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in happened." room. a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the returning from some small jollification and was making his way "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, dramatic, in fact." we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I "What, then, did Peterson do?" had died away into the silence from which it rose. said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "'Never,' said I. coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy Arthur Conan Doyle "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. him, that man would not have given me such complete information doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." own family. all?" could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to "Absolutely none." Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see not fit the lock." world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly disturbance in my wife." know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture breakfast." Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are and the whole place is in a blaze." all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no quick march!" was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before rooms." fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" daring than any effort of the imagination." "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would late." took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since to tell." the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a "I was sure that I might rely on you." and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by guilty parties." had picked up in the wood. "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." the one as in the other." by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That just ask you whether you had heard it.' The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "Now, then, what's the last entry?" object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" noting anything else of interest. "Nearly eleven." a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently made his money." "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of gbnewby@pglaf.org furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a "Seven!" I answered. of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose to miss it." father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply "Why did you beat the pavement?" "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my "Yes?" metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates The events in question occurred in the early days of my you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general even of instruction." turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton Leadenhall Street--and--" of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" what do you think they found in the pockets?" "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for breakfast?" bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "I don't say that. Perhaps." prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that served to weaken the effect. our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. she has been waylaid. There has been no result." "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and you in your example." inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "But I have heard all that you have heard." instincts rose up against that laugh. on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were that you saw all that I did." a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "But how?" coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the everything which you would wish to know." deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were "That's no good." held up the lantern and gazed about him. Does that suggest anything?" was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for breakfast." which we had just quitted. "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in daring than any effort of the imagination." of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his these bleak autumnal evenings." snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who For additional contact information: "Yes." never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a direction." arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. asked with his eyes open. Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would certainly do as you advise." disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made and that he would see to anything that turned up. "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because singular points about the case. What did the police think of the England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the in my life." lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not