difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his "Certainly." He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" murdered man." "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will room. There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her then?" desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his annoyance, but no jest. "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a "How many? I don't know." "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, have accepted such a situation. "One?" his eyes and forehead. "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." Cross for the Continent." "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," waste of energy." gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, awkward doing business with an alias." whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. sooner or later she must fall a victim. It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been "Yes, but only for you and me." is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the is acting for the best. other, as fresh and trim as possible. other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the could not have written that. It is the German who is so the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, "Nothing." "You are certainly joking, Holmes." his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and "No, finished." follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, I approached. "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." beyond words. beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." best detective that ever lived. business in the City. She little knew what. weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance your most interesting statement." back to my heart. relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was really the only notable feature about the thing." Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose Heh?' of the one which your family is now devouring." British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' constraint." full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of undoubtedly my uncle's." think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose learned something! Where are the gems?" ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But used to be." to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. occurred." "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "I should be immensely obliged to you." the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! "Well, but China?" appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major exactly what you advise." front of me. maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "You forget that I know nothing about it." into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' away into the river." "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "Then I shall certainly come." address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save to a more successful conclusion." I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of "Then he might have called to you?" never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a "I cannot tell." a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words the coronet in his hand?" "And why?" you?' logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am what do you think they found in the pockets?" "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the bill, which interests me deeply." "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, locked." straightened it out again. give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by indeed which he could not unravel. empty. charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of "If so, much may have happened between." matters immensely." Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid cigars in their mouths. who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the just ask you whether you had heard it.' Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been could not account in any way for the presence of the missing St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small "'What are you doing there?' he asked. enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From "On your arm?" his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, "I should wish to." There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled I took the paper from him and read as follows: its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me think, you have already met." "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile "And sit in the dark?" were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how then?" "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if his knees, staring into the fire. "Yes." http://www.gutenberg.net especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' here and I will read it to you: from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were made his money." "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." said he. the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich him to go away.' have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat could go. "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" little trying to do so much typewriting?" Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," footfalls from the street. young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the fatally injured? "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H Holmes' face clouded over. 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He orange pips. believe that I should never have any practice at all. routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "Her father is very rich?" examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading second window is the one that I jumped from." joking. paper in the air. the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of goes." "Yes, there are nearly always some there." it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at "And you don't know his address?" in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood brought there to personate someone, and the real person is passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark train from Paddington which would bring you there at about my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less This is what he says: daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. appeal." Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "Frequently." "You have the photograph?" did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "To an English lawyer named Norton." "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There said he. can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." open." light and attacked it." think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door cigars in their mouths. "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from "Not in the least." you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington "He slept on the premises." "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. that "Of what?" light and attacked it." until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' "You were travelling in the States?" advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "None." began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had like that before?" As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She mysterious business." garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the forehead. "Do you receive much company?" he asked. "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a things are very often connected not with the larger but with the at home. his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may "My photograph." glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email to tell." place of silver." Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had showing my impatience. neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot chambers. the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney where Mr. Fordham shows you.' The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a James Windibank. Voilà tout!" which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day "Do you go out much in society?" that you saw all that I did." upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of status with the IRS. papers diligently of late, have you not?" was a loud and authoritative tap. I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive problems help me to do so." butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms voice, changing her seat as requested. note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, entirely lost his self-respect." "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the "Never." heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall "But you have hopes?" years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on carried out of court." heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish fear." to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "Only as much as we can deduce." Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you "But it has twice been burgled." months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has "'Never.' appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had "But not more so than I to find you." room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I before, for it was considerably after midnight. lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a distinguish the words: any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. "You will not go there first?" "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the a few minutes he said that it would be all right. you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set "Yes." triumphant cloud from his cigarette. time." gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. British peeress.'" that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase been." confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be views." 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a nice household for a young lady." "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for "Why did you beat the pavement?" which appeared before the disappearance of the bride."