have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the "That is unusual in a young girl." have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through very old mansion. to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this chance at all." crowd. feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since "One of the highest in England." and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been official police." should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his me, and I could not think that his explanation of the Holmes." blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I I shall communicate with you." difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. been with you?" places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and "No." of it with the greatest attention. the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for fact, we may call it conclusive." money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" tell him that I know him to be innocent." fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my child?' he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that upon the sideboard." his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "He slept on the premises." I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. "'What are you doing there?' he asked. "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman question you as to those details which seem to me to be most window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make London for the present?" very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a "You are hungry," I remarked. woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible "But you have hopes?" before, for it was considerably after midnight. performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or "Witness: I must still refuse. examine." standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir hour?' estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom "My dear Holmes!" became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give Pool. from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant was feeling which was the fattest.' "Will you go?" upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned Lestrade of Scotland Yard." Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "'Never.' safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his washing it down with a long draught of water. 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "Oh, the cause is excellent!" Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back the Assizes." man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. "Was he the only applicant?" "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "We were both in the photograph." twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she him, that man would not have given me such complete information "Ha! you find it so?" "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers that you can jump it.' tied." We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To he bowed and left the room without another word. the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of of the way of danger. fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret felt the room to be a little close.' "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very Pool. were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce before, for it was considerably after midnight. be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a "And leave your case unfinished?" assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions suggested at once that there must be a communication between the round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address "Come in!" said he. was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for he bowed and left the room without another word. not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how opened a pocket-book and took out a note. sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" "Married! When?" the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some the window, rose as we entered. and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events kind enough to tell me what I should do." seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A brain must have something in it." are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at business came to an end." business in the City. She little knew what. suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up examine." Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for remarked. and glanced through. Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual and capable of preserving a secret.' the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said plantation.' days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is "By all means." willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, this poor creature." Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our followed. you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from points to suicide?" he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before present." throat." grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the "It may not come to that," said Holmes. distinguish the words: houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm get her out of the way." shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the enter Dr. Roylott's room." reach." engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges late." made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped The telegram which we eventually received came late one night bill, which interests me deeply." his face which made him a very different person to the round, rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you "Never to return." "'And the work?' ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, possible that we could bring him back to her? "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have present." his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault http://gutenberg.net/license). few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough own family. "Why serious?" have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. brandy and water within his reach. "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the "It is true that I have been generally successful." in him." "Then he might have called to you?" sparkled upon his finger. London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at did not hear it also.' have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that were wasted." consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that companion. a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of me, and I could not think that his explanation of the and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton I. "And sit in the dark?" "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "Only as much as we can deduce." danger is over." "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to "I say it is." of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "Absolutely none." "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "He might." are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "You heard nothing yourself last night?" the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little here and I will read it to you: occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had me. "Not I." from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who "How do you know, then?" methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other Mary, has deserted me." "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I more terrible than the truth. 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" "'Stolen!' he cried. there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed "I have a cab outside." to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord "What are they?" wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he me what he had done with the three missing stones. reach." be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding "I think that it is very probable." They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange said I. was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I Countess of Morcar's?" for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. daring than any effort of the imagination." myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, results." I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a the King without delay." destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into "May I see it?" "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, drawing your inferences." wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to seven miles from Eyford Station.' be there in time for your coming." which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing Lestrade of Scotland Yard." "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house there were one or two details which were new to me. But the "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the strong reason behind." "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was "But how?" warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk interest. They are important, you understand, without being to tackle the facts." thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near followed. have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" one's self under obligations.' Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of of fine shops and stately business premises that they really doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and