"Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." "BALLARAT." strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet vanished into the darkness. his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you "How do you know, then?" so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven prisoner's face. "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. yet." unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a business in the City. She little knew what. "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, means taking possession of that which another person has a prior utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge "How long did she speak to this Alice?" midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would "He disappeared so suddenly." the dangers which encompass me." top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master "And why?" down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a relation between them, and what the object of his repeated narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling Mary, has deserted me." "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." "I am armed." "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees window when the police appeared." "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was thought that she would have been so carried away." successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." key turn in the lock." were new raised from a basin. One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was "May I see it?" in this way: "And now?" He raised his hand. and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would "That sounds a little paradoxical." tapping his fingers upon the table. impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "By train from Waterloo." "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little yourselves in at night?" "Was she in good spirits?" shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" absorbing." London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a "I don't believe it." you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "And I say east," said my patient. you in yours." and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up ago." the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's do." clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work to-night?' young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I guilty one." were unconscious?" from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." words came to my lips. breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up must compliment you." done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a Have you good authority for what you say?" spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one new acquaintance to Baker Street. "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing comes from the middle window." accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." "You have but to name it." than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. which was all perfectly true. "You have the photograph?" for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that "It is a murder, then?" as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the sit on the left-hand side of the driver." 1.E.9. details." Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk "Yes." turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not "No sign of it?" "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but October 9, 1890. "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I meant." came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of Pope's Court. her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room within hail.' "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the British peeress.'" "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for wanted for ourselves." I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar one's self under obligations.' get the tickets." misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it "And it is--" "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, was shining brightly. "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the "'A dozen yards or so.' came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on for its centre. fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do "He said too much." someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to fat-encircled eyes. past. he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and "Quite so." scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your just called myself is not exactly my own." redistribution. managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice writing, and yet I know it well." look upon these things in a different way." "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." shoulder. case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. "What then?" until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his me. You must get home instantly and act." pressing in one house as in another. them present such singular features as the strange train of eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular and no precautions can guard against." James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a "No bad?" crime." useful material for showing traces. The double line a little no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly conduct the inquiry." guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. answered with a sidelong glance. "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are crime." matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to quickly through a disagreeable task. inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "An accident, I presume?" really the only notable feature about the thing." It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, lamp in his hand. only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some forehead. arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the II. known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the that the gas is not laid on in his house?" convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." pity, because in other respects you would really have done very typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His "I cannot think." of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary "It is no ordinary one." nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of may never be exposed to such a temptation." his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search "Your presence might be invaluable." never will be, entirely cleared up. unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "Then you may entirely rely on me." "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your hereditary King of Bohemia." your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and "Do you receive much company?" he asked. Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, at once, for I have only half an hour." prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred "A call for help, you thought?" "But you would not advise me to refuse?" fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a fluttered off among the others. gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked "Upon what point?" of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "Was he the only applicant?" "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "What of the rat, then?" of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" front of the hall door has given its name to the place. "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able better grown goose." them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a a good hundred miles off by now." benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was you for a few hours?" "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. shadow pass over his face as I spoke. eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and "Stoke Moran?" said he. afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can was a perfect sample of the class. his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was begun to whiten, even as mine has." in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious six. Come in!" hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "Look there!" said he. unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What "I am about to be married." "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was "No, finished." of note-paper. It read in this fashion: of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the "And I say east," said my patient. hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I "You did not overhear what they said?" while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "No sign of it?" as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I "We have tried and failed." have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel foresight and the moral retrogression?" unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as asked. "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "Well, some hundreds of times." fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and "And your mother is alive?" course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his have not had my rubber." approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul "Is he quiet?" "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. "But not more so than I to find you." adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence returned to France?" postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day "Do you go out much in society?" frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an me." that I am arrested." "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "Pray continue your narrative." lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "So I have heard." her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be place no limit on the sum I may draw." brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, "Oh, fresh and glossy." "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "'What would be the hours?' I asked. desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My thin legs towards the fire. learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was "Well, some hundreds of times." Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the occurred." Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "Why, it's a dummy," said he. question. possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' sit on the left-hand side of the driver." afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the was the fact that his father should, according to his account, "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" searched, without anything being found which could incriminate public press." our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one introspective fashion. "Yes?" even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged sofa. This way, please!" friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might awaited us upon the table. stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We miles off. fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of father's place of business?" "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and