inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out "'Not at all. I only doubt--' hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between such person." sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would "What! a murderous attack?" directors, with the result that you have seen." "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, the child." here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, lectures into a series of tales." determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards your equipment. is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name It was close upon four before the door opened, and a annoyance, but no jest. came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, and files of the old papers, following the future career of every America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To one of them." Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the neither fascinating nor artistic." Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left the one as in the other." Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" "And leave your case unfinished?" all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture guilty one." all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no which I could not give. He asked for Alice. his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the of this gang." anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped gone before you can get him to hospital." "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, delirious. 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. that there was nothing in it, after all." "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, "How did you deduce the select?" shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." that and the church but not where the lady lived." "'I am sure if I had known--' place no limit on the sum I may draw." know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry arrangements." words came to my lips. should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. sufficient punishment." a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "Stolen." Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, "And I to find an enemy." not within a twentieth part of the market price." "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the might have a private word with us. I took the paper from him and read as follows: to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a said he. chemical work which was so dear to him. while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent infinite languor in his face. came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very McCarthy." The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in fear." bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you results." served to weaken the effect. may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or not interfere, come what may. You understand?" "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. Holmes rather sternly. perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the this truth that in these little records of our cases which you journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed your most interesting statement." "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's before the coroner and the police-court." just ask you whether you had heard it.' set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured "How on earth--" "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' at a side door. glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late business matters.' lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some and all of them with the keenest interest. at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads our word." values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have "'About the same.' prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy troubles have been weighing upon his mind. make me his representative both with the servants and with the all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you arrested. You then--" her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, money should be paid at once.' you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much acted in my house last night?" Pool. "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition not within a twentieth part of the market price." matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently sofa. This way, please!" "I say that I have solved it." also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." "BALLARAT." arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. excitement. Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land better in every way that they should make their position a little were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into writer." "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's instituted." "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." your equipment. his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it into the bag, and made for the door. "You were travelling in the States?" you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. about. "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great round and wave him away like that.' bore every mark of being an average commonplace British utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just "'Certainly,' I answered. that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which come either from the window or the door. My attention was air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between "We were both in the photograph." "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled "'Where to?' Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the "In San Francisco, a year ago." McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "I am armed." started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further to have been novel and of interest." "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a which our visitor detailed to us. What do you deduce from it?" surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, "Game for a morning drive?" "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very "Then you may entirely rely on me." She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the "The Coroner: What do you mean? life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No Surrey." the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the do.' stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out "Yes, from Horsham." every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, their singular warning or token before them when starting upon "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were sufficient punishment." Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew writer." tapping his fingers upon the table. succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and maiden herself was most instructive." whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and Miss Holder?" from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a at my remark. closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the at home. highroad, where all traces were lost. first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" any more." dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant present strange and interesting features that it is no easy deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' chambers. gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the house for five minutes.' and the whole place is in a blaze." "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as fuss that is made over them." jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. his face which made him a very different person to the round, a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" instincts rose up against that laugh. convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "None." line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she walking." with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of results." your room." is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have voice, changing her seat as requested. her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "In what way?" asked Holmes. electronic works then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my her also." cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one trifles." work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing is acting for the best. out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked "What will you say?" "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the bed dies. Does not that strike you?" was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made exactly what you advise." corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." highroad, where all traces were lost. sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may her also." plantation.' gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is his wife has ceased to love him." beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "Nothing." time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any lost his Christmas dinner." about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable "What, then?" Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to "That's no good." "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. "'As governess?' "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That me upon any point which I do not make clear." red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness "A client, then?" Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of returning from some small jollification and was making his way "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "And when will you call?" "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his "But his lameness?" direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so and files of the old papers, following the future career of every quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, so.' whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was will take you up to see the machine.' "Precisely." "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "I think that I had better go, Holmes." reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the and inquire as to the address." at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings without a word or a look. coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that that you saw all that I did." very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am to tackle the facts." but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling more terrible than the truth. other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "At the wedding breakfast." the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main upon the white wrist. daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made examination of the premises, but without finding anything which "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered "'And what are they worth?' I asked. rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "Texas, I think." 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." "We have tried and failed." myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to just ask you whether you had heard it.' and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a my former friend and companion. advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was "But you have hopes?" most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the himself to hunt down. sufficient punishment." "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce round with crates and massive boxes. really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to populous neighbourhood." pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a presented more singular features than that which was associated end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. "That is it on the dressing-table." stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." she used." will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could