than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to perplexity from it to my illustrious client. "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of client, rising. handed it to him. call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a breakfast." springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding union?" Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet "This photograph!" "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, the general public were present, then?" that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, most interesting one." hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet "'Where to?' alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, front of the hall door has given its name to the place. he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I considering the formidable letters which were received by himself your billet.' "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "None." be there in time for your coming." Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the "I cannot think." weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the experiences." sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a "In heaven's name, what for?" however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." tightly behind him. and the church but not where the lady lived." smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you that, and I came down." case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." "How are you getting on?" "Never to return." "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of room?" "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal main points of my analysis." "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the troubles have been weighing upon his mind. decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his and have this put in the evening papers." things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." mystery." "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, once more to my work. gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed call it cruel." doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "You have the photograph?" "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open "By train from Waterloo." It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any article?" "Nearly eleven." abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. "Won't it ring?" agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he "Why did you pick him?" finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that believe that I should never have any practice at all. "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give generous with you in money matters.' To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the clanging. I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great "I think it very unlikely." yards of it?' "I should be immensely obliged to you." snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing be.' for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free "Which surely he restored to their owner?" same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "BALLARAT." friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the breakfast and whispered something to her husband. settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps business?" at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." "But she could not love him." income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, tell him that I know him to be innocent." an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and British peeress.'" "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate with you?" frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and "An enemy?" "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "The knees of his trousers." paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I cigars in the box." "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the "You have it, sir, just as it happened." earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have writers could invent nothing more crude." years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly "She walked into the breakfast-room." villagers almost as much as their master. arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned outside. "'What do you call purely nominal?' Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace the so-precious time, but come!' "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a astonishment. "What will you do, then?" "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray charge against him will break down." one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his know all about it," he snarled. the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." had picked up in the wood. 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long cigars in the box." said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you a room. at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a works. together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only come either from the window or the door. My attention was dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all brought there to personate someone, and the real person is "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, straighten it?" relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was mystery." the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly Surrey." pound a week." have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography to me. of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, breakfast." signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The were new raised from a basin. her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers matters immensely." had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this long narrative. steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging "Dark enough and sinister enough." "What can you not understand?" and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have "'A dozen yards or so.' straightened it out again. from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was "In answer to an advertisement." "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he "No, thank goodness, she did not." my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly "To an end?" "This concluded the examination of the witness." "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, carried out of court." problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and peculiar to him. at a side door. should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a in his hands." much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, "So I heard. You have him here?" to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of are, I think, all that we need." The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open depend upon your compliance." Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "We were both in the photograph." abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my never will be, entirely cleared up. nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "They are typewritten," I remarked. of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on conceal it?" "Nothing." pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained she has been waylaid. There has been no result." Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, "We were both in the photograph." years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly it." be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns to-morrow." "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I use an arc-and-compass breastpin." passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. into the room. "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a What do you deduce from it?" "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, official police." course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." would apply.' "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, 1.F. "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water "You don't mind breaking the law?" "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by the tragedy. Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of fashion which was peculiar to him. Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf "And that is--" such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." quite distinctive." suspect him." "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been "So I am. Very much so." "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "And your father? Did you tell him?" "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "I was sure that I might rely on you." seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "I cannot tell." the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of true." "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend "When did she vanish, then?" process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and beg that you will break it off." "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her are, and they are waiting for us." It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the "I am following you closely," I answered. note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can "'I am sure if I had known--' "An accident, I presume?" the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said highly," said Holmes. "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the her also." come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and Eyford." "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he that I may have something better before very many minutes are a very grave face. lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. signal between you and your father? the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same again, where I was soon asleep. "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the