"'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "Because he was handy and would come cheap." some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the shadow pass over his face as I spoke. subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the "What, then?" only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. the so-precious time, but come!' mysterious business." have I gained?" ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position been anything against him. He had for years been known as a my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already deduce something from that?" "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the "Nothing?" "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had had this final quarrel? face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the "Where, then, is my wife?" "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should was not a bird to be seen there. The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. wall." Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. "Did you become engaged then?" doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before remarked. I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs words came to my lips. rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is of the way of danger. so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. "Which are?" call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." "I cannot tell." "Ah, but I was recommended to you." "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake and have this put in the evening papers." and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from read it out to me." Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by carriage. It was a chestnut." and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out developed." I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a experiences." emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. Surrey." Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in "But of what society?" for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It "Frequently." 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing maid will bring up your coffee." "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the "Nothing." "A confidential servant?" about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of hurried by. "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "Then you may entirely rely on me." our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss papers must be those that are destroyed.' gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of as noiselessly as she had come. she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop wanted for ourselves." my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I companion. I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second formed some opinion?" devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay "I see no marks." homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to power." "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" the Red-headed League." "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little hurried by. name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "But she could not love him." wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is "There are none." "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found until night should bring an explanation. dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little me what he had done with the three missing stones. hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On on in his house." sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an "Certainly." "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the "You are certainly joking, Holmes." Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The towards the blaze. did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, "Yes." fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came himself to hunt down. with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that matter." of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' house for five minutes.' side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "When did she vanish, then?" We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There leaning back in his chair. deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead "Nothing." "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' tapping his fingers upon the table. directors, with the result that you have seen." "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your in my life." confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss call for it in person on Monday morning.' the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting "Entirely." London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but 11:15.' continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a what these perils are?" characteristics, but those are the more obvious." vanished into the darkness. dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's maiden herself was most instructive." round with crates and massive boxes. "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he "Yes, they were peculiar boots." "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came "Pray tell us what has happened to you." coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been certainly do as you advise." "What!" he roared. were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." use an arc-and-compass breastpin." I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! time." "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." "And how in the world did you find them?" "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, do you make of it all?" This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in forecastle of an emigrant ship. He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my carriage. It was a chestnut." 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will awkward doing business with an alias." thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was residence of the great financier. "But who is he?" "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "I am about to be married." lamp. behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to strength of mind to control. "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right indeed happy." staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate present." business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "But what will you do?" years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich affair. uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover "No more words. Get out!" "Certainly, madam." Literary Archive Foundation to-night?' anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my speckled band?" original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My you." outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must impression behind it as though a window had gently closed "And Miss Sutherland?" one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or questioning and rather startled gaze. suggested at once that there must be a communication between the robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate was it brought him the coronet? police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my "But you were on a friendly footing?" I nodded to show that I had heard. long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the tail." "Not in a good cause." public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm of a light. sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal "And leave your case unfinished?" in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was "This concluded the examination of the witness." the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, "Will you go?" have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I "And it is--" The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and that you can jump it.' searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" "How often?" Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and speckled band?" "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner "It missed him, then?" had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in "Has he come with you to-night?" a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, "I shall most certainly do so." certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you "Yes." in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." brandy and water within his reach. them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a national property. I was determined that the law should have its While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "And how have you succeeded?" the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me he. he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot furiously. "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune results." "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal becomes even more simple." you?' Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced highroad, where all traces were lost. that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the this man was intellectual?" looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The away in different directions, and I went off to make my own words came to my lips. would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen conclusions. do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. wedding?" practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. some place of shelter and let the county police know what has "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, his fortune, and I went back to pa. its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it I held the little printed slip to the light. and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg companion quietly. with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that "'Ample.' "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in tension within him. never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan IS adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." "How about poison?" week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those village inn over there?" have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated figure." "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's thin legs towards the fire. myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my gigantic client. "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set here." keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend "Was the window open?" Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must not fit the lock." life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a is four-and-twenty." the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss garden below. which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "I have hopes." Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works London for the present?" Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" some water from a caraffe. a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood which it had come upon my father." "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with weary and pale-looking. them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away "What are they?" ventilator." society." entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. jewels which you have stolen?' the room while you explain this matter?" tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, will take you up to see the machine.' would then never go into court at all." Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you how narrow had been my escape. I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. face and glided from the room. her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in "What then?" in a very precise fashion." the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That more terrible than the truth. "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really