"Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they whether it answered to the description of any of their it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that "Did your wife hear all this?" office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant October 9, 1890. sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in situation." of the vacancies.' though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied "Yes, all." "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back "Nearly eleven." you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector call it cruel." call for it in person on Monday morning.' "But she will refuse." ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird "Precisely." "And you thought he was pulled back?" magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked her also." to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had the matter." do." the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to questionable one." hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by charged with?" steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, words came to my lips. long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to Stoke Moran." This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: points in connection with it which never have been, and probably fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would his wife has ceased to love him." Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; "That sounds a little paradoxical." by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "Very truly yours, Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" astonishment. array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black "I saw her in conversation with her maid." such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. your own bird, so if you wish--" off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this the one as in the other." put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he "It was a confession," I ejaculated. effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be "And why?" reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, bare slabs of marble. "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "Imitated." indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then Serpentine Avenue. "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery papers on the sundial.'" family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who were new raised from a basin. called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid From what you have told me I think that it is possible that shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "It is half-past ten now." with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place will find little credit to be gained out of this case." back to my heart. "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out mystery may be cleared along those lines." husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging know all about it," he snarled. Holmes rather sternly. "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" noble correspondent could be. spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook "I see many objections to any such theory." when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more unprecedented a position." in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the o'clock is it?" He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your It was close upon four before the door opened, and a and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, "What! Had he lost his wife?" "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. hour." and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what "No, my brougham is waiting." clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry his face. a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little "'About the same.' I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and "Was she in good spirits?" "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his you in your example." beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal quite distinctive." ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round point our research must commence, and we will begin it by him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, father's place of business?" electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round American. Then who could this American be, and why should he "One horse?" interjected Holmes. "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he any more." "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" man. a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, and a shock of very red hair. of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight and I shall be with you presently." But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" be. ready to-morrow?' often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My to where he stood hid behind the curtain. the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she with some details as to your case." furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter me, and I could not think that his explanation of the someone who had been in Australia." in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the one which it was hard to resist. "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his think, you have already met." Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "Very truly yours, "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was works. See paragraph 1.E below. Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at union?" back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open and the church but not where the lady lived." "Now, then, what's the last entry?" his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We You can understand that this register and diary may implicate say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. that threaten you." drove away. opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "But to whom?" I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, "I will try. What is it?" himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is "Will you go?" drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt photograph a cabinet?" this man was intellectual?" "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face case-book, which he consulted. "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over "You were travelling in the States?" Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner that you wished to speak to me?' "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he electronic works me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, of the way of danger. light and attacked it." classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year your bag." "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through what is your own theory as to what took place?" to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private "Her father is very rich?" open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment burst into a hearty fit of laughter. money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what "I have seen the police." "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the o'clock is it?" Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of she used." maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "How long did she speak to this Alice?" more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. shall not find me ungrateful." red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's "My own seal." spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" "And why?" light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no without success. At last the little money which I had saved began tied." him to go away.' "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you possible that we could bring him back to her? remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently my friend's incisive reasoning. "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw "Then, as to money?" ceremony." "What do you make of that, Watson?" "'In my own bureau.' "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. key turn in the lock." should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose of this gang." "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss some water from a caraffe. go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most there was no need for father to know." had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and such attractions and accomplishments?' "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or "Yes." look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you case-book, which he consulted. as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and breakfast and whispered something to her husband. was feeling which was the fattest.' rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a you understand?" "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one and I shall be with you presently." "One of his hands." "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" without a word or a look. appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm "And it is--" on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out suggested at once that there must be a communication between the dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after not within a twentieth part of the market price." "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I one or two very singular points about this room. For example, He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant events than those which have happened in my own family." and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There persecution?" brought there to personate someone, and the real person is vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I used to be." "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some "Very much so." laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be used to be." rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to "But who is he?" "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester "Two days later this same performance was gone through under