which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "Which surely he restored to their owner?" Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary "Yes." prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. "That was it, sir." London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you relief. sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the "No." active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. considering the formidable letters which were received by himself some terrible trap for her." my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. served to weaken the effect. "What, then?" Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "It is his hat." been anything against him. He had for years been known as a "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "How often?" scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in "She walked into the breakfast-room." into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "You are all wrong." TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE "Then he might have called to you?" It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. views." were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, My friend smiled. spare." have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' Pool. "That is it on the dressing-table." Sutherland?" reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows a suggestive one." I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be "On Monday." dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country in a friendly supper." "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and "Never." "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of vanished into the darkness. "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see the King without delay." ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the weighed down with some great anxiety. Lestrade of Scotland Yard." help us in this matter." better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and yet." previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All such person." their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the into the bag, and made for the door. We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as examine." lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope the coronet at all injured?" could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "Who was the criminal, then?" the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in "'Where to?' utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." "And that is--" crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "What is it, then--a fire?" "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "My opinion is in no way altered." be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." "Very much so." an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying Holmes' thin, eager face. "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, hour?' "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the "'What then?' I asked. greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging His smile broadened. right! Sit down and let us talk it over." did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "My last client of the sort was a king." do you make of it all?" triumphant cloud from his cigarette. of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect the child." Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. Farm upon the left." upon a handsome competence. knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot "Dirty?" "No, I had a dozen." started for the Temple to see my husband. "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to purpose of examination. "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the asked. have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "None." house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." "She will not sell." stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you weigh very heavily upon my conscience." in a very precise fashion." together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the over part of the map. "What do you read?" "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had have got?" evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the The summons was a brief and urgent one. edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "But you would not advise me to refuse?" were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since burst into a hearty fit of laughter. fish-monger and a tide-waiter." been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in was not a bird to be seen there. "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, "It is possible." the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project "I warn you that they are very incomplete." bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked to some other building. client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can that he will be back before evening." Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, gentleman's clothes. "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed "Where, then?" Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The article?" was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while go--none." corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. "What?" trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and works. "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little and that he would see to anything that turned up. has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be cigars in their mouths. and prosperity to your house. Good-night." phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to prepare for the new role I have to play." in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He "I will not look." round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" not, dad?" she asked. lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment outbreak?" hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "Ten will be early enough." bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you think that he is innocent?" rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to from the brougham. As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such "Yes, I have one waiting." hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their depend upon your compliance." table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a "How on earth--" With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I matters immensely." than to us. "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms noble correspondent could be. bearing upon the case." high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too "How can you tell that?" "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee Literary Archive Foundation typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to answered with a sidelong glance. alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway more terrible than the truth. said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" bonnet, and went out." himself to tell his story. "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can carriage. It was a chestnut." an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to directors, with the result that you have seen." off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. fish-monger and a tide-waiter." dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the when your master had gone out." part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' "You are hungry," I remarked. found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest "What have you done?" asked Holmes. man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." a little more before I quite committed myself. tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at present strange and interesting features that it is no easy papers diligently of late, have you not?" miles off. "I should like to see him very much." that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in a little more before I quite committed myself. When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of "I would pay ten." glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no stood on the top of it. posted to-day." the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "Here?" "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled the side-table." "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a you?' "And sit in the dark?" with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "'Yes, it was gone.' his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own chemical work which was so dear to him. and inquire as to the address." common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "And that is--" search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean formed some opinion?" the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are your own bird, so if you wish--" seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." upon the white wrist. tail." from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the "You heard nothing yourself last night?" XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, been." "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to the coronet in his hands?" Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance "It is true that I have been generally successful." Have you good authority for what you say?" God! What an exposure! What can I do?" his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you walking." she to prove their authenticity?" walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we "Then I can wait in the next room." "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to me." test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to tell." England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always unprecedented a position." gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would in my life." and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "'There is a drive, then?' Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any written, and locked the door of the office after me. mystery!" "Awake, Watson?" he asked. have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. note?" which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the