a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the maiden herself was most instructive." of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I to that open window." and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us throat." Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of minor matters until to-morrow." sit on the left-hand side of the driver." all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to new duties?' the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very "Not I." point our research must commence, and we will begin it by "What have you to say now?" "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is "You don't mind breaking the law?" when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father all?" is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? wife's character?" of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and sufficient punishment." "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions "A confidential servant?" retorted upon me, and I on you." without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so existence." your billet.' knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all and a shock of very red hair. came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may his knees, staring into the fire. self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his I have it here in my museum." that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" outbreak?" It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, "No, I think that I'll take it." inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since the south-west, I see." good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my I shall communicate with you." perplexity from it to my illustrious client. there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what his knees, staring into the fire. makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first "One of his hands." "No." have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, your only hope of safety." could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" rose-bushes. experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of Dr. Gregory B. Newby would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. "Ample." providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, "He is dead," cried several voices. I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you be sorry for having acted so harshly." "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the "Was there a secret marriage?" "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. face and glided from the room. the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in the room while you explain this matter?" would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting "Very. But will he see it?" convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in fasten all the windows?" the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." one of them." out of this horrible affair." determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "Pray let us have it, for all that." "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged "We were both in the photograph." from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and "No. His orders were to stay in the house." narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, them present such singular features as the strange train of his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy Leave Paddington by the 11:15." "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, ashen face. to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" "And how did you verify them?" was it brought him the coronet? it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer through." acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little read over the extraordinary announcement. before the coroner and the police-court." ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a green of the new foliage. impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them guilty parties." He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with "I have a cab outside." "Why serious?" In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a back to my heart. "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small "'Ten to two.' this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that answered with a sidelong glance. importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and it means?" hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, the Red-headed League." experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and in the dead of the night?' felt the room to be a little close.' "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which useful material for showing traces. The double line a little heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. that I am arrested." trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and take the flies, but not before." "What have you done?" asked Holmes. village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for Street. then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." following enigmatical notices: the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink will be renamed. man. "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. to a light-house. absorbing." could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and you." well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when direction." definite end. precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at passage and a tap at the door. out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "So I heard. You have him here?" so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it I nodded again. "She will not sell." in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "I saw her in conversation with her maid." homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country enter into my head. of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" and files of the old papers, following the future career of every with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that yourselves in at night?" money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert married her." "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, which it had come upon my father." "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are Lee, in the county of Kent." pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for 'please.'" the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I "'It is locked up,' I answered. "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of was shining brightly. "I have solved it." even so self-evident a thing as that." been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included rat could hardly pass through." "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his a good hundred miles off by now." were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before asked with his eyes open. friends, not even his own brother. advice." to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will for and were ordered to this address. dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. "No good news?" a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable may never be exposed to such a temptation." burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "But who is he?" or other trace. But how on earth--" And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the how narrow had been my escape. about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all indiscretion." particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been During two years I have had three consultations and one small see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is there were so many in the whole country as were brought together shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly fat-encircled eyes. girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, matters immensely." pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, kind enough to tell me what I should do." my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' wall." Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." "What! You do not mean bodies?" reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. recall any case within my experience which looked at the first "I think that I had better go, Holmes." "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak "When did she vanish, then?" "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to was a loud and authoritative tap. brought there to personate someone, and the real person is At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a constraint." down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss tightly behind him. been shamefully used." and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "Pray let us have it, for all that." deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" not come at once?" "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "He said too much." the little opening for the ventilator is." to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or seem to you to be relevant or not." "You know me, then?" colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the several quiet little villages up there." sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's of Fenchurch Street." not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "'Which dealer's?' would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more definite end. access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." matter." deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the Sutherland. "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of "I see no marks." God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands young Openshaw's." cigars in the box." "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. client, rising. himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of nights." afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our of campaign. morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was "Pray let us have it, for all that." listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "Yesterday." whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." American. Then who could this American be, and why should he of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who of them has the shutters up.' again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet like gravel from a pit.' given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a would apply.' guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the "Yesterday." chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's "I am about to be married." phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," the stones. sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but outsides of the windows. "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I own family. "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand weighed down with some great anxiety. Stoke Moran." "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. affair. stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had opportunities to fix the problem. "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest "What have you to say now?" young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him tapping his fingers upon the table. Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, ago." had this final quarrel? "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are "And did you observe any change in her then?" "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he