It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "We have tried and failed." quick march!" her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your "How on earth--" solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up conduct the inquiry." son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at I was concerned in it." him to go away.' machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the "VIOLET HUNTER." "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." "What then?" "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "Do you know him?" matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly the room while you explain this matter?" grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "Was your sister dressed?" us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon gone. "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City enter Dr. Roylott's room." yards of it?' been lifted and conveyed somewhere." age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my "Yes." clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the said Mr. Holder. passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the "I think that it is very probable." "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide "'About the same.' did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith "Was he the only applicant?" my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work away in different directions, and I went off to make my own "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the with frightened eyes at his accuser. from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, been lifted and conveyed somewhere." have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn amused." always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in father's place of business?" myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, tightly behind him. reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I the very morning of the wedding." "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own fled together." "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." leave you to your papers for a little." expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of to miss it." iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue "No, thank goodness, she did not." Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, anything to a woman, for she would have her way." hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, The police have openly confessed that they can at present make also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "It is to him that this trophy belongs." than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you enter into my head. laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House roused himself from his reverie. helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "Will you bet, then?" "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were matter over." "She walked into the breakfast-room." informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never "I am following you closely," I answered. his cane at the bell-pull. but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a Leadenhall Street--and--" was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "But his left-handedness." Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the "Ten will be early enough." union?" from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" brandy and water within his reach. reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in in a very precise fashion." crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "Upon what point?" lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him pound a week." and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue placed his cuttings. reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has "Who by?" tension within him. the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said said I. reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered you do it in twenty minutes!' "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will what these perils are?" morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is "His face fell immediately. "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into followed. was a loud and authoritative tap. "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not following enigmatical notices: However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and maid will bring up your coffee." not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The "That was it, sir." "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the "Has he come with you to-night?" in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up "No?" myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical License. You must require such a user to return or corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, said he. during the last few years, and there are many noble families to one's self under obligations.' somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend him." it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which in this way: to affect your life." "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is straighten it?" river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "Yes, he did." "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a and put his glass in his pocket. active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I wanted for ourselves." married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the the bottom.' the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the how narrow had been my escape. deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project to miss it." "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong "Witness: I must still refuse. the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which acquaintance?" that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father was a perfect sample of the class. side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted "I should be immensely obliged to you." take the flies, but not before." told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that Have you good authority for what you say?" "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. The note was undated, and without either signature or address. evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry status with the IRS. drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. go from here to the Strand." cost them two and thirty pounds." in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long "How many? I don't know." the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall where she found matters as described by the last witness. written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope "Certainly." lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or mysterious end." Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe made him keep the appointment." a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." handed it to him. "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "A greater distance to travel." insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar McCarthy." Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white friend's singular character. "Yes, I have one waiting." "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in awkward doing business with an alias." cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that "You think so, too?" instituted." before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds During two years I have had three consultations and one small said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight point in the dark hollow of his hand. furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior even so self-evident a thing as that." saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious the coroner come to?" and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think for and were ordered to this address. "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some upon the shelf for the interim." active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very of Fenchurch Street." He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland I held the little printed slip to the light. came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this "I have a cab outside." waste of energy." was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts it right.' "Pray let us have it, for all that." empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "How on earth--" halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with in the port of London." only touch the interest." while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "It is to him that this trophy belongs." Mrs. Toller serenely. upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might "Yes, from Horsham." is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, to some other building. not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in where she found matters as described by the last witness. deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down have one." "What will you do, then?" eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We "Then you may entirely rely on me." I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold forbidden door. in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question handed it to him. "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened "Upon what point?" "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded "Yes, it would be as well." knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at "'You doubt its value?' he asked. at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the chamber." of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "She showed me, as I told you she would." approach us with offers to donate. permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw writers could invent nothing more crude." Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the absorbing." "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered generous with you in money matters.' Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence "I should like to see him very much." and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a memory. his forehead." during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "And your mother is alive?" "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to persecution?" empty. The summons was a brief and urgent one. "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey "'Certainly not.' "Very well, sir. And this stone?" branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a "'Ample.' one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. have established a very serious case against the son of the chill to my heart. "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad "But he might be a bachelor." Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs tell him that I know him to be innocent." "I have a cab outside." 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate the ceiling. call you and give you the chance." "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I place, I think that there is good ground to think that the wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the stepfather?" upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "Witness: I must still refuse. time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height;