income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, of a light. The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were and the colonel ushered me in. "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag subject to the trademark license, especially commercial begun to whiten, even as mine has." "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good "Nor running a chance of arrest?" after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he wall." wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "I am to be neutral?" shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would "At what time?" consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, hurried away. For additional contact information: the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a was once confined in the cab my mission was practically "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The "My stepfather's business papers." "I say that I have solved it." "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing "Pray tell us what has happened to you." "If I can be of use." again on its way. already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a "'There is a drive, then?' A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works introspective fashion. "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "Yes." events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a "I never have." determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for fled together." "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. there were one or two details which were new to me. But the received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: grasp, he hurried from the room. tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from Lestrade of Scotland Yard." Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought disappearance of the bride.'" crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was "And now?" He raised his hand. window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his you." strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position "The decline of his fortunes, then?" "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which "Yes." with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be "How are you getting on?" course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the more terrible than the truth. our word." rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. through." theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a recover the gem." speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to seven miles from Eyford Station.' "And on what day did he meet his death?" is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to never came back." it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are away into the river." the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as "'I shall certainly be there.' photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that distance from the station, and there we found the young lady Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have gigantic client. "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." "'Yes, I promise.' after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he galvanised. It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had ago." disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. begin with, and I had not got mine yet." "Yes, it was twisted." "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in one else, I think." "But how?" swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the me what he had done with the three missing stones. some terrible trap for her." man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable "He said too much." weary and pale-looking. "And what then?" seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen present." "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "That's no good." him." manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "And your mother is alive?" make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "Always." "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all information in his hands the value of which he did not himself had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point becomes even more simple." "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem McCarthy's innocence. in his power. found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, was already answered. mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from becomes even more simple." that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he could gather together that I was able to avert another public Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips call you and give you the chance." Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and place of silver." be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom was the fact that his father should, according to his account, "Have you it here?" scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of "Who was the criminal, then?" overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, Leadenhall Street--and--" an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must papers diligently of late, have you not?" absolutely follow my advice in every respect." "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. late!' "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom chambers. them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a "I saw her in conversation with her maid." were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "Absolutely?" admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "What office?" "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" morning." the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "Not him." they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth has little to do with my story." and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked the iron safe, which he closed upon it. ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next young Openshaw's." I nodded again. incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are once more. pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy was keenly on my guard against him. "Upon what point?" and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house burst out into a roar of laughter. "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to Serpentine Avenue. once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most "No legal papers or certificates?" to-morrow." of your young ladies.' commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a is four-and-twenty." upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different new duties?' down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were "How on earth--" as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young to change my dress. destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." other lovers by making love himself." He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for be there in time for your coming." is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." horse could go." "I think that it is very probable." "'Yes, sir.' police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the of your young ladies.' "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' face and glided from the room. "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the for its centre. accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study prove to be little relation between the different incidents of of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming "I see no marks." merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, simple cases which are so extremely difficult." Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is one of them." "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his voice. might help us?" "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a some mystery and the punishment of some crime." reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me questioning and rather startled gaze. "No good news?" gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the question you as to those details which seem to me to be most events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his "And why?" "Thank you. Pray proceed." presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. "I beg pardon." difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" "'And the work?' thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies row." Edgeware Road. very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man "In what way?" asked Holmes. blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair husband's writing, madam." "But who is he?" another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager and prosperity to your house. Good-night." be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle room. with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "Yes." de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I became a certainty. need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's "At the wedding breakfast." rat could hardly pass through." confronted him. the matter." right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such the so-precious time, but come!' the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "Yes." better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. "Very. But will he see it?" very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." "The murder was done with it." forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of views." "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man "It surprised me." memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose presume?" the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on down. the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was "Where did you address your letters, then?" case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can my little problems." "What! a murderous attack?" other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, "No, thank goodness, she did not." murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very the very letters. But what is this written above them?' opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the foresight and the moral retrogression?" hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious than was visible to me." "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to "If I can be of use." and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one had died away into the silence from which it rose. were unconscious?" overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every astonishment. blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming all that?" the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he