"IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those You can understand that this register and diary may implicate approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "'What then?' I asked. visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some 'I should be able to look after that for you.' have an American origin." DAMAGE. to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "Get out!" said he. unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence sooner or later she must fall a victim. This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "Eh? What was that?" than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house fashion which was peculiar to him. and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped "Where to?" details." even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped "What! Had he lost his wife?" But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' ways of our fellow-men." presented which may be striking and bizarre without being "Yes." prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" Street. dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and his eyes and forehead. never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same putting in the horse. any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense intrusion of other matters." remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa seem to you to be relevant or not." have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, "But you would not advise me to refuse?" little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of breakfast?" suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind "What is it, then--a fire?" rat could hardly pass through." are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "9th. McCauley cleared. are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a "What have you done?" asked Holmes. right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." strode off upon his way. dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and and glanced through. It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY tell him that I know him to be innocent." "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as simple cases which are so extremely difficult." iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding "Yes." "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very like gravel from a pit.' "Why, it's a dummy," said he. as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a purpose equally well?" "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out "I saw her in conversation with her maid." confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off "Yes, certainly." Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it depend upon my doing so.' himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too "'Tell me all about it,' said I. the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he perplexity from it to my illustrious client. the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with Holmes' thin, eager face. "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that "At half-wages, in fact." second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. "No, I had a dozen." vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed woman who has had her own way to make in the world. Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I wedding?" quite distinctive." understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the future lives." it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was into the bag, and made for the door. cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity pictures, libraries, or plate. he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who "'Where could I find him?' "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little outside. stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small heavily into it. shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he some water from a caraffe. towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his behind me. over with notes and figures. them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders morning." I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his swore that no one else had been in the front room during the to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal here." "She will not sell." left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only you, my dear young lady?' said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering in the dead of the night?' but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our at once, for I have only half an hour." that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in "And how did he make his money?" was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and room. his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he papers diligently of late, have you not?" "But what is it you wish?" "'There is a drive, then?' very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or fire. You quite follow me?" large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One was a loud and authoritative tap. "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is away in different directions, and I went off to make my own was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you just called myself is not exactly my own." "I am to be neutral?" "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that depend upon your compliance." I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "Because he was handy and would come cheap." the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others papers must be those that are destroyed.' danger is over." business in the City. She little knew what. "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was strength in the others." clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their questionable one." experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in "You have a clue?" and the whole place is in a blaze." from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the *** START: FULL LICENSE *** came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed business at Coburg Square is serious." scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a train.' of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the manager. waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's the side-table." possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' Holmes." cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "Where, indeed?" finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in "Then he might have called to you?" "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own cigar and let me expound." towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. name is different." "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. "Pray continue your narrative." "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. "But I am all in the dark." sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," it with his own hands." man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew you." said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." bill, which interests me deeply." me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the "Ten will be early enough." and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded you?' one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. "You horrify me." broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a "'I have heard so.' arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than tell him that I know him to be innocent." union?" size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have fact, we may call it conclusive." even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "No, distinctly professional." "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" shall not find me ungrateful." all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "I say it is." what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have all that?" "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the "I fear not." the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even "'You doubt its value?' he asked. is entirely a question of barometric pressure." I think that I could be of assistance to you." "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of "You saw the ventilator, too?" "No." ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. Lee, in the county of Kent." question," said Holmes, smiling. life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "Yes." blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was tear off another piece?' statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. "Her father is very rich?" A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped to a light-house. held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left take the flies, but not before." since then to throw any light upon what became of him." pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by from you?" He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the discontent upon his features. one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no more terrible than the truth. which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, it with his own hands." closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I your sleep?' home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into "Ha! you find it so?" me upon any point which I do not make clear." upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, away in different directions, and I went off to make my own "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "Was there a secret marriage?" '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up brought there to personate someone, and the real person is is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that your most interesting statement." "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence "She told me to ask you." "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "You have the photograph?" "'What would be the hours?' I asked. you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "Well, some hundreds of times." brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "My photograph." you in your example." crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen was a perfect sample of the class. Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property new acquaintance to Baker Street. Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his gentleman's clothes. "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "And that is--" Leadenhall Street--and--" return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, one's self under obligations.' have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held you." "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted know all about it," he snarled. years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a "I will not look." It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. Sutherland?" think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless