way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea attention." you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and politicians who had been sent down from the North. voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the "Ha! you find it so?" old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some and looked back. plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a "And how have you succeeded?" It may be so in this case, also." the dangers which encompass me." There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable true." a very grave face. How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "On Monday." being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they for its centre. long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "And leave your case unfinished?" "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake the side-table." rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, showing my impatience. same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. second window is the one that I jumped from." of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. about here speaks of his kindness to him." could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the and no precautions can guard against." plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view visitors." It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "And how?" has little to do with my story." agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual the matter?" "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies go from here to the Strand." "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham "Then he might have called to you?" this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. pressing in one house as in another. "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an Doctor, of the paper and the date." "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One "Yes." the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the father's place of business?" have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he must compliment you." ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. "It is possible." grasp, he hurried from the room. "Then I shall certainly come." "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after any more." It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had a room. "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you lamp. nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course front of the hall door has given its name to the place. "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence "Stolen, then." cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "Then you may entirely rely on me." marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "It surprised me." approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a together. putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated open." The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in "'Certainly,' I answered. other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy such attractions and accomplishments?' public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm seem to you to be relevant or not." done what I asked you, Jones?" learned something! Where are the gems?" without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous indiscretion." perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over of." upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was "I am following you closely," I answered. "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. you found me to-night--and running through the front room she notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just "Imitated." "But to whom?" empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than "None." was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, "Perhaps I have." again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She "No, I think that I'll take it." "I promise," said Holmes. that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I "But how?" the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to some terrible trap for her." me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a than was visible to me." "But you were on a friendly footing?" how narrow had been my escape. have had none more fantastic than this." to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest Holmes' face clouded over. pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the experiences." present." cigars in the box." step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. "He said that you could solve anything." chamber." "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I like gravel from a pit.' dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with had died away into the silence from which it rose. a good hundred miles off by now." "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught was feeling which was the fattest.' any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be might have a private word with us. "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "Your French gold?" "Not in the least." "Where, indeed?" it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's direction." weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with giving me time to thank him. successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, all that?" "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting fatally injured? and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year attention." set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "One?" How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the this man was intellectual?" in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take death." we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, colonel looking down at me. together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my peculiar to him. "Were they all fastened this morning?" electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the fatally injured? believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "I see no marks." "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the States. chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have read over the extraordinary announcement. "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I "It is possible." in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "I have my revolver," said I. Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" "But she will refuse." I. Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. father's place of business?" "How did you trace it, then?" thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I arrangements." confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of it were putty." "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained about here speaks of his kindness to him." thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. prove to be little relation between the different incidents of firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every placed his cuttings. both be extremely obliged.' for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence even so self-evident a thing as that." ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the fear." annoyance, but no jest. Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. writers could invent nothing more crude." distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, them?" were new raised from a basin. from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the child?' mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things compunction about shooting them down." said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the "But we can't all be." and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for take the flies, but not before." "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or strong reason behind." him, that man would not have given me such complete information already referred to. derbies." "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of conceal it?" chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the "Then you may be so with me." gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all as this. Pray let me have the details." "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." "Yes?" down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed recover the gem." "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover and files of the old papers, following the future career of every He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in "Married! When?" Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. "No, my brougham is waiting." "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young charge against him will break down." "Texas, I think." by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an of." strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "But not more so than I to find you." who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." chair. was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must conceal it?" pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." bears upon the case?" by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an in. "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a fear." was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "'Why that?' I asks. strength of mind to control. "Ha! you find it so?" still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and such attractions and accomplishments?' that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on again, where I was soon asleep. I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of "'How far from the body?' "'Never,' said I. tail." pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His