"Precisely so. But how--" practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. house for five minutes.' should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of some terrible trap for her." "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush "The best possible." would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about "About a month then." "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three nothing of it?" self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, have had none more fantastic than this." "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. "ARAT," I read. leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." and your relations to her." "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in to-night?" I asked. I am not easy in my mind about them." finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any "Then I can wait in the next room." "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out the salesman. but preventing her from injuring another. Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, particular state visit http://pglaf.org 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can respectable self." appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it letters?" "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on The police have openly confessed that they can at present make But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in the window, rose as we entered. in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my "Witness: Nothing definite. the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault "Very murderous indeed." as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than with you alone." frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "We were both in the photograph." whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet Holmes' face clouded over. silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He as noiselessly as she had come. protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical subject to the trademark license, especially commercial fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you affair. "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." "ARAT," I read. public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord the matter." covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "Why did you pick him?" desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, "Not in a good cause." while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving shadow pass over his face as I spoke. his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to with some details as to your case." all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "You'll never persuade me to believe that." enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson helping a boy to put up the shutters. "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in companion imperturbably. "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. here." before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very "Very much so." the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into in my life." Mary, has deserted me." the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there this as likely?" dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of matter." half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "By train from Waterloo." better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There this truth that in these little records of our cases which you the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" only touch the interest." "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is to-night?" I asked. License. You must require such a user to return or reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. stammered. vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss to tell." change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, certainly do as you advise." "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "Thank you. Pray proceed." opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since danger is over." ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in standing smiling on the door-step. threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will if I call to-morrow?" "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn "One?" analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went with frightened eyes at his accuser. was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in is acting for the best. 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it to tackle the facts." better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying to-night?' away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of "10th. John Swain cleared. It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that "No bad?" my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, if only as a check to my own memory." will he say when he returns?" certainly do as you advise." "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six goes." surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that the salesman. I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. writing, and yet I know it well." thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee man. I know him from the photograph." Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, "My opinion is in no way altered." "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only make me his representative both with the servants and with the should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of danger is over." "Where did he live, then?" I approached. keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would "That is it on the dressing-table." "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a Does that suggest anything?" and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their "But I have heard all that you have heard." Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, this poor creature." that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." me have 200 pounds?' room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" interest. They are important, you understand, without being mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to "Pray tell us what has happened to you." Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "I promise," said Holmes. must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you meanly of me." We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This plantation.' trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." whatever might befall. Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. wall." photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, him, that man would not have given me such complete information usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be which was all perfectly true. "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." my room." About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which "Because he was handy and would come cheap." ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger "Never." "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he brought there to personate someone, and the real person is II. 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible asked. "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in she slowly sank and died without having recovered her foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it them present such singular features as the strange train of away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he on re-entering her father's house?" stepfather?" Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock there." "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most tail." moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. awkward doing business with an alias." "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on records." Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "By no means." We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned voice. "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under "Yes, there are nearly always some there." to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and you." "I assure you that I am in your hands." see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as "No, finished." "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" quick march!" Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I "Witness: Nothing definite. sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. locked." shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, client, rising. on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project to Leatherhead. my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, point our research must commence, and we will begin it by Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his footfalls from the street. He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through the night.' shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "Holmes, the busybody!" Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by made his money." so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. politicians who had been sent down from the North. outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "'Ample.' like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his rose-bushes. Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "My last client of the sort was a king." "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been "Yes." than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed and the colonel ushered me in. morning." "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of "I am in hopes that she does." "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I writer." showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is "Which surely he restored to their owner?" "You have the photograph?" matter." invisible to me," I remarked. great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away "Stolen." remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without have been better. It is all right." refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most "Did you become engaged then?" house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of showing my impatience. "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place views." "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate "An accident, I presume?" held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. "I warn you that they are very incomplete." across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was charge against him will break down." Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "There are none." from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. he died? made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' affection." that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then foresight and the moral retrogression?"