erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, to me. reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His stalked out of the room. present." vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so status with the IRS. forbidden door. strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in "I cannot as yet see any connection." pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I note?" "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much "So it appears." more solid." shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs "To ruin me." tassel actually lying upon the pillow. "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a even of instruction." and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom "'Where could I find him?' can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are question. It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home went to the Alpha were town bred." bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step galvanised. rooms." beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned are, and they are waiting for us." few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I hurried by. including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark "Yes." must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect "'About the same.' at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "Then I am your man." the room while you explain this matter?" by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small man. "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no "No good news?" other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my sneer upon his pale face. "None. Neville wrote those words." foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his License. You must require such a user to return or over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the empty. fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of and prosperity to your house. Good-night." of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker "Where is it, then?" at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob photograph?" I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable "What can it mean?" I gasped. states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person and inquire as to the address." and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO "How do you know, then?" have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy few hundred pounds.' his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. "It was a confession," I ejaculated. young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb posted to-day." cause to be." whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the "He said that you could solve anything." "Pray do so." the date of his supposed suicide." expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from the Red-headed League." but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he "I think it very unlikely." "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, closing the door. each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional "Breckinridge is his name." to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "And help." copied or distributed: burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an stammered. years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up legal crime." "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found green of the new foliage. only touch the interest." the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his "You have the photograph?" During two years I have had three consultations and one small quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but His name is Francis Prosper." what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "Not particularly." said I. resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden of fine shops and stately business premises that they really deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" your troubles." should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case me have 200 pounds?' Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much recall any case within my experience which looked at the first records." the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't the night.' photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain writer." "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his Sutherland. in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the jewels which you have stolen?' gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "From his hat?" drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into During two years I have had three consultations and one small running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an made him keep the appointment." saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. "Then, how do you know?" "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some works. creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "I do." "I am still in the dark." Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He "Your French gold?" along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but "ARAT," I read. was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret desk. fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "You saw the ventilator, too?" "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door father's young wife. these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH "And sit in the dark?" conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that of them has the shutters up.' so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would observed. quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." congenial hunt. battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this "To the police?" remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this your billet.' paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the "And help." window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental "Then you may entirely rely on me." was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible I have it here in my museum." and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed "You think so, too?" "It is a murder, then?" weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An imbecility!" he cried. They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary child?' Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. ran thus: "No, my brougham is waiting." which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the "Yes, at the mines." ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere noting anything else of interest. breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than "Witness: It was. "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur my special province." "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "That's no good." "The rest you will leave in our hands." "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but "But you have hopes?" Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action pity, because in other respects you would really have done very do.' did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he of Fenchurch Street." "Of what?" "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "It surprised me." dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." visitors." even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure "It missed him, then?" utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. on re-entering her father's house?" reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," know what is wrong with it.' little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of "To an end?" "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. infinite languor in his face. "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" their singular warning or token before them when starting upon difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. became a certainty. he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its could not have written that. It is the German who is so than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "Your sister is dead, then?" "I think that I had better go, Holmes." He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of "Certainly." ran thus: last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' "Nearly eleven." "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, "My own seal." inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." for and were ordered to this address. homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "'No, I know no one in these parts.' matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I suspect him." assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." me where it went to?" distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of to some other building. explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the written. the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a "'What then?' I asked. James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can official police." for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to "Yes, it would be as well." "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can "No." married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was question," said Holmes, smiling. this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my gives a meaning to it." usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a to surprise her." through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have I think that I could be of assistance to you." It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had to surprise her." was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they where she found matters as described by the last witness. wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in outside. think you a quite exceptional woman." yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" then?" But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not arrangements." "'Which dealer's?' and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with