but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On Mary, has deserted me." to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, there!' Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend lost his Christmas dinner." "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a shoulder. "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, could gather together that I was able to avert another public of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is detective. the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from out." metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass "Yes." opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is tear off another piece?' "I am to be neutral?" the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. ordinary clothes on?" leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had "Her father is very rich?" science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "Pray do so." The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' keep the flames under. status with the IRS. understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a "No, my brougham is waiting." o'clock is it?" dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how "Then the page we have seen--" surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "No, my brougham is waiting." evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag "I will not look." been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous "Come in!" said he. matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution next day. and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away you for a few hours?" the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, this truth that in these little records of our cases which you in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" You want to know what became of those geese?" of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional door?" rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in criminal. We have already had experience of such." the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears "Will you go?" she might be summoned. sentimental considerations in the background which would induce and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train placed his cuttings. himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. were wasted." begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. to tackle the facts." "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them because she had spent so short a time in this country that she for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "'Entirely.' A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these I have it here in my museum." head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on words came to my lips. "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been followed. and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On into her hand at the door and which lured her within their bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the stable lane now." "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you ways including including checks, online payments and credit card received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, "Yesterday." "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "'Yes.' away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre note?" people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "What can you not understand?" word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor skylight. "Your presence might be invaluable." Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," beyond words. "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons "It is half-past ten now." "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a singular points about the case. What did the police think of the practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. to take care of herself." lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little highroad, where all traces were lost. eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "In what way?" asked Holmes. threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will II. brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his subject to the trademark license, especially commercial and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City "What do you mean?" eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the "No?" "10th. John Swain cleared. "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "Pray do so." "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such "It is solved." commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free is a common subject for conversation. telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the it." happened." those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the examine." "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to these bleak autumnal evenings." description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, had this final quarrel? cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman dear old homesteads?" "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. from the brougham. woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she of his shoulders. business." The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite shadow pass over his face as I spoke. McCarthy." Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was sooner or later she must fall a victim. are, I think, all that we need." said he. was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and "I think that it is very probable." house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of as he folded up the epistle. room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. discontent upon his features. the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this will take you up to see the machine.' as noiselessly as she had come. the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "My dear Holmes!" whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the You can understand that this register and diary may implicate "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "No legal papers or certificates?" this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a better in every way that they should make their position a little name is different." families. Now for the facts. the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite bird I ate is country bred." has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my the inquest, and which are worth considering." he bowed and left the room without another word. Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may answer." "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon "'Certainly not.' it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said gives a meaning to it." "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place assist you in forming an opinion." burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, "I think it very unlikely." mystery!" with you?" "I will not look." sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece important." "Yes, sir." edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so unkempt, staring out at me. "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "Did you observe the colour?" "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue to have that photograph." cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or south, for the country is more deserted there." and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham go from here to the Strand." "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. cheerful." passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." to-morrow." but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real floor. "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored "What, then?" would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." answered with a sidelong glance. Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us "They are typewritten," I remarked. grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always cigar and let me expound." "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. must compliment you." has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim "My dear Holmes!" and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "Do you receive much company?" he asked. the bottom.' places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You weigh very heavily upon my conscience." surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no heavy and sharp instrument." minor matters until to-morrow." not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in "And from a noble client?" whole matter to your consideration." would apply.' that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a than was visible to me." "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project "Thank you. Pray proceed." taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "You are hungry," I remarked. "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and nonsense.' return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "I promise," said Holmes. encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" "We have tried and failed." Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with "Well, some hundreds of times." vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have "'There is a drive, then?' "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "Yes, sir." room had already been engaged for us. the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the straightened it out again. "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking "Come in!" said he. schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has that he has suffered." A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head so far?" voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an "Then he might have called to you?" presented which may be striking and bizarre without being "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help himself in a perplexing position. depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no shoulder; "he's all right." "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and power." "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I are, and they are waiting for us." "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to