disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" "I will try. What is it?" shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The "What! a murderous attack?" the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the "It came here." actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, have not had my rubber." "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." outsides of the windows. the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she in a friendly supper." "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible "'Is 4 pounds a week.' examination of the premises, but without finding anything which suddenly upon us." dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel that he will be back before evening." and files of the old papers, following the future career of every "No, I am descending." "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend of Mr. Rucastle's." "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and the coronet at all injured?" occupations.' business came to an end." "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for "It goes to the housekeeper's room." Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and III. before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of constraint." had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she points in connection with it which never have been, and probably man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little "It is true that I have been generally successful." to-night's adventure." them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have "Why did you beat the pavement?" come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I bachelor.' "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "And from a noble client?" "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. grasp, he hurried from the room. "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and disturbance in my wife." "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if for the market.' extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying that I can to serve you." About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning province." chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to "Game for a morning drive?" points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his along the entire front of the house, with three long windows every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "But how will you look?" breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each "'Entirely.' "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' soul! here is her carriage at the door." furiously. for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very "We have tried and failed." Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit long narrative. passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you my secret was safe in his possession. use an arc-and-compass breastpin." was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. rooms." will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil roused himself from his reverie. quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every "And why in hopes?" I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow cigars in their mouths. It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of "By no means." fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles awkward doing business with an alias." "You forget that I know nothing about it." where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a formed some opinion?" me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible The note was undated, and without either signature or address. coat-tails." "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday Holmes' face clouded over. "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings generous with you in money matters.' you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. information in his hands the value of which he did not himself glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a derbies." "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two "It was a confession," I ejaculated. air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "I will not look." what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully late!' destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "But I have heard all that you have heard." Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." James Windibank. Voilà tout!" usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. "'How far from the body?' you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of "What is it?" where we are going." It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must go--none." "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "Where, indeed?" so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal status with the IRS. something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a been with you?" in this way: step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case have accepted such a situation. asked with his eyes open. "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle upon a handsome competence. "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." "Won't it ring?" total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which "Which surely he restored to their owner?" the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than digesting their breakfasts at home." side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa as he remarks, very much against the son." "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the "Of what?" going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of "'Never.' appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: shall not find me ungrateful." acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my sooner or later she must fall a victim. problems help me to do so." he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now your sleep?' open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before and files of the old papers, following the future career of every Does that suggest anything?" other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith "Ten will be early enough." wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. in him." than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the way in." He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: it were putty." "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of Holmes' thin, eager face. Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we "What do you make of that, Watson?" dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was became a certainty. ventilator." You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what before the coroner and the police-court." of note-paper. It read in this fashion: the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the excitement. so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his "In San Francisco, a year ago." "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a "Ten will be early enough." least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, Project Gutenberg-tm works. derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the trifles." whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or had picked up in the wood. with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly stammered. the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which "And now?" I asked. people don't know." "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily "But how did you gain them?" the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold rat could hardly pass through." Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was "Murdered?" view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "'Is purely nominal.' inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of to surprise her." ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner in his hands." the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "But I am all in the dark." someone who had been in Australia." "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite "But how will you look?" from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to and the colonel ushered me in. broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in "Certainly." eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The 'I should be able to look after that for you.' that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "Ha! you find it so?" formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "How many? I don't know." article?" inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported in the dead of the night?' well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an his wife has ceased to love him." feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort intrusion of other matters." turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most trying to your nerves." halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "I guessed as much." events, Mr. Windibank!" after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his arrested. You then--" plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain been shamefully used." which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last "But we can't all be." that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of the loss of it. "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just meant." but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull meant it for the best. really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still like gravel from a pit.' "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend "'You doubt its value?' he asked. sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" article?" 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a third from London." have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." help us in this matter." "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. not, dad?" she asked. showing my impatience. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I back to my heart. "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on "And Irene Adler?" of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a and glanced through. return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, developed." some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, easy-going way." questionable one." from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' "I have seen the police." my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has in his power. the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the bedroom door." he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came nothing of it?" Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion said I. keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to good-night and bustled off upon her way. I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly."