"But you can know nothing of this?" a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, in my life." "Your French gold?" air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence pierced for earrings?" chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "'I shall certainly be there.' main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew fashion which was peculiar to him. "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "'Certainly not. But why?' "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall "That is unusual in a young girl." "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is fled together." finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out unprecedented a position." "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), "His face fell immediately. my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of "What is it, then--a fire?" of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, ordinary clothes on?" "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said any." be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in house for five minutes.' British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive unprofitable." the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which "Yes. He waved his hands." above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. to go into your room and bar your shutters?" through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the "It is very kind of you." Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took silent! Oh, he will be silent!' hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to the Assizes." away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner away in different directions, and I went off to make my own "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a so far?" friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he "My private note-paper." disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster south, for the country is more deserted there." rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless purpose equally well?" precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did even of instruction." "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. "You are certainly joking, Holmes." hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "Well?" know what is wrong with it.' bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. front of me. "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" "Was she in good spirits?" despair." "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended tell me that you intended to go into harness." breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, "Yes." word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." "I shall most certainly do so." his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears highroad, where all traces were lost. and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "Ten will be early enough." into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to nice household for a young lady." above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, own family. all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there might help us?" may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or lamp in his hand. "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line the one as in the other." a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured Sutherland. anything to a woman, for she would have her way." Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and of receipt of the work. "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "'I have already given you my word.' fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were woven round him. "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray bird of prey. age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, his wife has ceased to love him." man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of a good hundred miles off by now." "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study Gutenberg-tm License. most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, gentleman's clothes. down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't some place of shelter and let the county police know what has he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to "I think it very unlikely." the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune "And what did you see?" "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no you give your casting vote to?" "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a have established a very serious case against the son of the pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with you." ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself with her." 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the that he has suffered." teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at several quiet little villages up there." would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in October 9, 1890. "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all possible that we could bring him back to her? had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a but preventing her from injuring another. uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to have not had my rubber." which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a trying to your nerves." "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. "And leave your case unfinished?" Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the "'Quite sure, dad.' "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that all?" loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is Street. "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and American. Then who could this American be, and why should he just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was as noiselessly as she had come. always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which quickly through a disagreeable task. pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates to arrive at through this?" of your young ladies.' be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, astonishment. "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious bed dies. Does not that strike you?" himself to hunt down. "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not and the whole place is in a blaze." "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I him and tried to hold him back. wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "How many? I don't know." abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have have got?" breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' official police." I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which it. before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "You have the photograph?" very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were Eyford." many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, gigantic client. could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to disappearance of the bride.'" and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up "How often?" and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable some water from a caraffe. "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you power." Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, Heh?' lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in had picked up in the wood. Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of which we had just quitted. We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an your co-operation." "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I "I have seen the police." "And now?" I asked. foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black dead, shall be safe with us." "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the occurred." very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which John Swain, of St. Augustine. of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of little trying to do so much typewriting?" Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid "The decline of his fortunes, then?" shoulder; "he's all right." "No, distinctly professional." prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two see me here to avoid scandal." so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the For additional contact information: words came to my lips. brain must have something in it." took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once intimate personal affairs in this public manner." casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. like that before?" wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I I held the little printed slip to the light. The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who the nursery. some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late salesman. Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "None." door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing there is a decided draught." of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only "No. His orders were to stay in the house." province." railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation of campaign. Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "Then he might have called to you?" might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and "Certainly, madam." us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have "Your sister is dead, then?" "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the seven miles from Eyford Station.' Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. populous neighbourhood." The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "Yes, the wine-cellar." of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for