in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I to tell." equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the nonsense.' "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," "Pray do so." that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing already referred to. "No, I had a dozen." "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with "Not him." quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that the station." read it out to me." Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "I should like to see him very much." receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that His smile broadened. surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If the south-west, I see." saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed "It is to him that this trophy belongs." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss wanted for ourselves." where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, in the dead of the night?' over with notes and figures. went to the Alpha were town bred." Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do tightly behind him. whatever might befall. "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, absolutely follow my advice in every respect." I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, License. You must require such a user to return or the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to prison!" akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's Farm upon the left." Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his respectable self." could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it in this note: the salesman. "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" Heh?' he died? he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in so.' extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, Pope's Court. "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all empty. "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an assist you in forming an opinion." wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it putting in the horse. of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for "'And the work?' by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would awaited us upon the table. Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you someone who had been in Australia." Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her to surprise her." "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical "My opinion is in no way altered." hurried away. mystery." was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. unkempt, staring out at me. ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' "None. Neville wrote those words." knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "I should wish to." dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very morning." who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' "But you can know nothing of this?" struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor "Yes, from Horsham." than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed "'And the work?' Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I "You saw the ventilator, too?" to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at "'Entirely.' reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots "But it has twice been burgled." in one or two places in England?' has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, "Witness: Nothing definite. had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "By no means." corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she forebodings. a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his his face. the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the sparkled upon his finger. were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." tell me that you intended to go into harness." possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "What is it, then--a fire?" would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and "None." "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and formed some opinion?" "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of down from London to inquire more deeply into it." front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us lumber-room." hands. road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It the coroner come to?" remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination there!' was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I "Stolen, then." say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling "'Oh, no.' perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your little adventures." danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll visitors." the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. burst into a hearty fit of laughter. Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can man. chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "He said that you could solve anything." have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there there!' certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge ran thus: passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached "If I can be of use." "How many? I don't know." across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and empty. acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, as the one I chose?' "What do you make of that, Watson?" upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes fire. You quite follow me?" mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge down. is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall "Now, then, what's the last entry?" her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was eavesdroppers?' misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and unclasping of his long thin hands. once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are "Ah!" neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the amused." but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a seven miles from Eyford Station.' and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" me what he had done with the three missing stones. coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. was a loud and authoritative tap. leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she "Very murderous indeed." so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its to go into your room and bar your shutters?" They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out "And how did you verify them?" "And why?" position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. "Your sister is dead, then?" my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the one or two very singular points about this room. For example, we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "You will not go there first?" "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have yet." of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "Yes." young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." there!' "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with "Yes." and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of Chief Executive and Director Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "Of Friday, June 19th." could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." sofa. This way, please!" kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You together. in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of "Was he the only applicant?" "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by things are very often connected not with the larger but with the either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter get her out of the way." something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with directors have had misgivings upon the subject." take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House criminal. We have already had experience of such." seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, "Never." You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that she might be summoned. "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other were unconscious?" The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "No." the dangers which encompass me." between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in unkempt, staring out at me. once more for Briony Lodge. strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and something of him before." daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered Heh?' chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be presume?" swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, "Will you bet, then?" a suggestive one." "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I opportunities to fix the problem. shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me key of the affair now." c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." "My private note-paper." your Highness to the police-station?" high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east as he folded up the epistle. gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again "'And what are they worth?' I asked. to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be II. as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, seven miles from Eyford Station.' right! Sit down and let us talk it over." pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." "And how in the world did you find them?" from you?" She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the children over to America with him, so that I found myself without help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in photograph?" "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. the south-west, I see." Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "'And what salary do you ask?' "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a you in your example." "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society "You are hungry," I remarked. Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from extraordinary contortions. air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he derbies." hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to results." idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes bachelor.' as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as