criminal. We have already had experience of such." experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." never to learn it at all." objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that "What will you say?" not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him later, upon the night of May 2nd." it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal reach." "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of not fit the lock." business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, at once, for I have only half an hour." room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" already been minutely examined." which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim have been better. It is all right." chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as I leave." "What will you do, then?" three of the beryls in it, was missing. autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged me. You must get home instantly and act." slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close "What office?" "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the is," said he presently: "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent "And I." "Stoke Moran?" said he. "It is a murder, then?" Farm upon the left." insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the useful material for showing traces. The double line a little when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp begin with, and I had not got mine yet." effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault "Of Friday, June 19th." regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in of Fenchurch Street." would then never go into court at all." may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his presume?" firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "'I am sure if I had known--' reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in prepare for the new role I have to play." description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "It is very clear." cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to bonnet, and went out." As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, wall." said he. me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon will not take me long to tell. dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his presented more singular features than that which was associated bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first certainly do as you advise." "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, been lifted and conveyed somewhere." approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important "Yes, sir." pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I call it cruel." Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you you." "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. you?' means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are made him keep the appointment." found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be of the one which your family is now devouring." Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in matter." shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third leaning back in his chair. "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten or other trace. But how on earth--" follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has persecution?" however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "He slept on the premises." may have an influence upon European history." drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." which was all perfectly true. she to prove their authenticity?" carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat "'Which dealer's?' withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and said I. astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this used to be." ill-usage at the hands of fortune. probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the coroner's jury." Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a more terrible than the truth. dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked "Witness: It was. fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as was already answered. follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here useful material for showing traces. The double line a little becomes even more simple." "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect "I assure you that I am in your hands." "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has you do it in twenty minutes!' "Was she in good spirits?" business." "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in forebodings. I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his The note was undated, and without either signature or address. sooner or later she must fall a victim. very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, companion. against a man in the prime of life?" "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? coat-tails." carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I their singular warning or token before them when starting upon wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me should be so warm over such a trifle." man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your lectures into a series of tales." hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed voice. figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend what these perils are?" money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "Not yet." "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of "Certainly." "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met "And why?" the very letters. But what is this written above them?' absorbing." hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, call it cruel." which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a said he. "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious easy-going way." "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room sit on the left-hand side of the driver." second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears do.' vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, useful material for showing traces. The double line a little "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler simple cases which are so extremely difficult." were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' "Come in!" said he. "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, "Very murderous indeed." "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "And what did you see?" tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect "What will you say?" tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been get her out of the way." assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is "'Why that?' I asks. There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It "Pray continue your narrative." his face which made him a very different person to the round, be.' thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay "No bad?" "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the out of this horrible affair." pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, anything to do with the matter?" pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." the very morning of the wedding." "Never to return." "Certainly." that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house national property. I was determined that the law should have its methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. indeed which he could not unravel. who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' developed." "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' papers must be those that are destroyed.' shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be prove to be little relation between the different incidents of elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. down. point in the dark hollow of his hand. the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "That also I could fathom." with frightened eyes at his accuser. that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you distance from the station, and there we found the young lady Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott open." gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very hardly wander." "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, in a very precise fashion." all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something Literary Archive Foundation "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and jewels which you have stolen?' really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may other lovers by making love himself." the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main tell him that I know him to be innocent." "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which fear." occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any is a common subject for conversation. when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and "My opinion is in no way altered." "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled horse could go." at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear amused." we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." tightly behind him. ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "It is possible." "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your where Mr. Fordham shows you.' yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: mystery may be cleared along those lines." "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this companion. the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, system of imprisonment?" parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I "Her father is very rich?" "Yes, at the mines." of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had the coroner come to?" and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over and inquire as to the address." lost nothing by them." latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily "Pray let us have it, for all that." twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from "Your sister is dead, then?" "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the burst into a hearty fit of laughter. my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand answered with a sidelong glance. cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a "The decline of his fortunes, then?" request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other this unhappy family?" "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over money should be paid at once.' The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud in my life." wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "And your father? Did you tell him?" The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the and have this put in the evening papers." the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that "Very. But will he see it?" the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of Foundation there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "Quite so. She has her freedom." Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old feature." "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she this truth that in these little records of our cases which you the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to