submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." and that he would see to anything that turned up. go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for which are rolled in Rotterdam." habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped "And the cigar-holder?" comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil strong reason behind." to me. "Yes." "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a "And now?" I asked. hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right "But to whom?" thin, with a long, sharp nose?" he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case national property. I was determined that the law should have its while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes "And it is--" LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried been deceived." including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on empty. 'please.'" not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the speckled band?" of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain door?" perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to Does that suggest anything?" typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her "Yes, sir." phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project frequently gained my first real insight into the character of the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, away to you." singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of grasp, he hurried from the room. "You have carte blanche." "What can it mean?" I gasped. of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "A greater distance to travel." This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all do." town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "Yes, sir." sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "It certainly sounds feasible." daring than any effort of the imagination." was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! legal crime." "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in signal between you and your father? was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "And I say east," said my patient. least a most suspicious remark." acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my ran thus: he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "I have seen the police." "On Monday." father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing "'Very good.' British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was "Here?" the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, October 9, 1890. noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the detective. woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young burst out into a roar of laughter. belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay "And why in hopes?" highly," said Holmes. it." started for the Temple to see my husband. "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. if I call to-morrow?" the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need "And that is--" (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "But you can know nothing of this?" that you wished to speak to me?' electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him whether it answered to the description of any of their "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has Doctor, of the paper and the date." me what he had done with the three missing stones. case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "None." beg that you will break it off." freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been directly by questioning you." threw himself down with his face to the pillow. "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done "And that is--" on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "The murder was done with it." had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across you want, then?' "Where, then, is my wife?" than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of depend upon your compliance." at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. "I promise," said Holmes. country, and eventually married, without anyone having a reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary said I. will be renamed. "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped to-night." residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates "I assure you that I am in your hands." husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others at home. system of imprisonment?" "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" future lives." generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this "What! Had he lost his wife?" struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes is entirely a question of barometric pressure." "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its him!" make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for "May I see it?" Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, be there in time for your coming." the station." conversation I have gathered that they have been married about question you as to those details which seem to me to be most once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if conduct the inquiry." "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a there!' He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" success. covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "I am about to be married." "He is dead," cried several voices. he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, advice." something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied guilty parties." was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then "Well, it is a possible supposition." we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to "That is easily got." many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was "'Quite sure, dad.' docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was you." I was concerned in it." "'Is purely nominal.' correct than the official force." submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out "My dear Holmes!" "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. "'In my own bureau.' him nearly every evening." the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it http://www.gutenberg.net room?" "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "Not in the least." detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, "But to whom?" "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you "That's no good." Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had "How did he come?" than was visible to me." shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a carriage. It was a chestnut." that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "Could he throw no light?" charged with?" crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without The police have openly confessed that they can at present make door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there "My photograph." her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the and the church but not where the lady lived." panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of success. whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked Surrey." whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this him. paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own "Not social, then?" well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt them?" little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was "When did it break out?" "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which and put his glass in his pocket. bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "By no means." "No." I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as it with his own hands." coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "It is half-past ten now." "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. morning." in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever Chief Executive and Director plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander "And you thought he was pulled back?" it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it cause to be." "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more bell. Holmes whistled. return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to at my own good fortune. plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the and shall probably return to London by the evening train." now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of to take care of herself." was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, "Of what day?" card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right said I. appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand writers could invent nothing more crude." "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her that turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened had formerly been in part my own. object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of his knees, staring into the fire. this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, which it had come upon my father." the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare said he at last. "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." do.' 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You The King stared at him in amazement. think that he is innocent?" house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down ordinary clothes on?" and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand as this. Pray let me have the details." son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm thought that she would have been so carried away." "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." "How are you getting on?" Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the suddenly upon us." pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm fatally injured? "Holmes, the busybody!" exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb call it cruel." way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most "I cannot tell." "The murder was done with it." which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other at home. "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the "'I am sure that I do not know.' Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced hour?' dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "Of Friday, June 19th." "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet me upon any point which I do not make clear." and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the During two years I have had three consultations and one small whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask it." "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "Will you go?" And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the away into the river." convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young