envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "No good news?" 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, threw himself down with his face to the pillow. keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. seem to you to be relevant or not." "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to door?" stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say your sleep?' which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper this as likely?" you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike and the colonel ushered me in. Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle "No more words. Get out!" started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an "She told me to ask you." "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" outside. use an arc-and-compass breastpin." "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be to surprise her." succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of and the colonel ushered me in. bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and did not hear it also.' "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely think that he is innocent?" of the vacancies.' find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses signal between you and your father? "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too British peeress.'" the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to "In which, sir?" wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to could not have written that. It is the German who is so intimate personal affairs in this public manner." should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the things are very often connected not with the larger but with the been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to wedding?" and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best of fine shops and stately business premises that they really governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain hair?' "I am in hopes that she does." turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the "On Monday." photograph a cabinet?" struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes "'I have already given you my word.' "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of place, I think that there is good ground to think that the We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. key of the affair now." anything to do with the matter?" down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in away into the river." the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her call you and give you the chance." commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a "'Very good.' object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was hardly wander." with the outside air!" Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that that?' companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some at my remark. slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which "And what then?" nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, father's young wife. "But it has twice been burgled." "Her father is very rich?" before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which "Ha! you find it so?" "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this "I warn you that they are very incomplete." could not account in any way for the presence of the missing address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to "You horrify me!" bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "My private note-paper." Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, that 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "This concluded the examination of the witness." be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in gbnewby@pglaf.org would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "And what did you learn from him?" into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, I was concerned in it." McCarthy's innocence. he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, had formerly been in part my own. yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close "No, distinctly professional." in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, "What is it, then--a fire?" Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are "Dirty?" "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him "I say that I have solved it." unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about "What will you say?" glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "Proceed, then." "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few out of this horrible affair." were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now she has been waylaid. There has been no result." right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "Seven!" I answered. In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who later, upon the night of May 2nd." the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would introspective fashion. up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "That is it on the dressing-table." lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in back alive. we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "And what then?" I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was see me here to avoid scandal." "How long did she speak to this Alice?" nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "Certainly." direction." see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. least a most suspicious remark." "None. Neville wrote those words." discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and yourselves in at night?" Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. "Get out!" said he. vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to this Miss Turner." lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you "Why, it's a dummy," said he. ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to "Have you her photograph?" prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose correct than the official force." on in his house." wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There of your young ladies.' "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter key turn in the lock." scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of invisible to me," I remarked. commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know "I do." afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "To ruin me." fishes. and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but or in danger--" "The King of Scandinavia." a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the "'Ten to two.' already referred to. Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the quick march!" of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, "This concluded the examination of the witness." "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and meant it for the best. uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. must be when I saw the door open.' "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose But Holmes shook his head gravely. is a common subject for conversation. in one or two places in England?' table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." been." much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 it with his own hands." station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of "Nothing." Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin golden eyeglasses. off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This been shamefully used." "No." Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most into her hand at the door and which lured her within their hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of begin with, and I had not got mine yet." remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a round with crates and massive boxes. whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a "Quite so." asked. him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small individual and becomes the badge of a society." "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. His smile broadened. regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." affair. "But his left-handedness." there in twenty minutes." forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. wedding?" the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not "To ruin me." cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. green of the new foliage. if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much the driver. Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day families. Now for the facts. pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that main points of my analysis." "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his to Leatherhead. "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." "Then, how do you know?" making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, vague figure huddled up in the darkness. lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may weary and pale-looking. Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was at a side door. back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and conduct the inquiry." age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a what these perils are?" coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than perplexity from it to my illustrious client. "Perfectly so." "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and developed." "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a fear." "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side "You horrify me!" living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in "Thank you. And your address?" Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the crime. when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some "Well, some hundreds of times." Foundation have not had my rubber." you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small Project Gutenberg-tm works. and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious mystery." sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. "A confidential servant?" among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our