"From East London. What do you deduce from that?" chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of sake, don't!" reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their "Dirty?" "So it appears." left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished "Indeed! Whose, then?" deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his "What?" and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and stepfather?" go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was records." had formerly been in part my own. "Just look it up, then." Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the village inn over there?" walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." in the dead of the night?' and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing like gravel from a pit.' landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, "I answered that I had not. behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me "And you don't know his address?" "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. strong and stiff." "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into brought there to personate someone, and the real person is in him." trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning know that the truth is known." "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a the loss of it. "Her father is very rich?" "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the "I was afraid that you were engaged." "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of posted to-day." to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind Miss Holder?" door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible relation between them, and what the object of his repeated way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, thought that she would have been so carried away." "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "I say it is." fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his such attractions and accomplishments?' get her out of the way." upon the shelf for the interim." Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her "Your sister is dead, then?" outbreak?" "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "Why did you beat the pavement?" Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to Mary, has deserted me." "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, than to us. shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the there were one or two details which were new to me. But the in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was "Did you become engaged then?" grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated criminal. We have already had experience of such." unprecedented a position." made him keep the appointment." I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! never came back." a monotonous occupation." of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon than was visible to me." "Witness: I must still refuse. himself. in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I of." the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "A client, then?" I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon DISSOLVED. railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set had died away into the silence from which it rose. before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another papers on the sundial.'" help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "What of the rat, then?" treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "But how will you look?" "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, certainly do as you advise." quite distinctive." been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "One horse?" interjected Holmes. "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, trying to your nerves." of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved it." with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got papers on the sundial.'" been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his "What can you not understand?" "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a she might be summoned. a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon round with crates and massive boxes. engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague derbies." of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have 11:15.' pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate who was a member of your goose club." "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper records." I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take good for you to do.' eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of your only hope of safety." in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar fattened it expressly for you.' so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out "But what will you do?" "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery murdered man." is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen States. think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora the bottom.' equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project when you have done it." you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an for securing the situation." as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and Pool. appeared upon the scene." "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he "And what did you see?" evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were himself to hunt down. into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, be sorry for having acted so harshly." income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, again before evening." "I do." also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which later, upon the night of May 2nd." "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in over his head with a sweet womanly caress. young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched existence." garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A success. strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six "She will not sell." could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only already referred to. "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my purpose equally well?" "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to do.' the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from could gather together that I was able to avert another public blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in "I say it is." "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise deduce something from that?" I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. passage and a tap at the door. say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But which should have the effect of calling the attention of the overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better there were one or two details which were new to me. But the "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that quick march!" stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" are windows in it, of course?" "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, me. matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "No good news?" humiliation." "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are "Yes, at the mines." kindly on the shoulder. shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to whether it answered to the description of any of their impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, "No legal papers or certificates?" We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis "You don't mind breaking the law?" "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most Does that suggest anything?" correct than the official force." that, and I came down." indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my During two years I have had three consultations and one small for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a "'As governess?' entirely devoid of interest." occurred." it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this straighten it?" approach us with offers to donate. him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project written, and locked the door of the office after me. to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." seen the man in the road." could go. the coronet in his hand?" "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There straightened it out again. My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you me." I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." "'Certainly not.' the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" think that he is innocent?" should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall once more on the important position which you have been fortunate kind enough to tell me what I should do." destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. "A call for help, you thought?" to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he again, where I was soon asleep. possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." writers could invent nothing more crude." the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom the King without delay." instituted." "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases have one." little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A three fields round his house, and there he would take his the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that that before taking the final step I should like to submit the Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. like that before?" the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its "Upon what point?" certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms said he. laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She remarked. "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation should be so warm over such a trifle." but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately "I cannot imagine." result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down come either from the window or the door. My attention was lips." professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick allusion to a rat. "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version think that he is innocent?" "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off presume?" seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his characteristics, but those are the more obvious." am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know