to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was down from London to inquire more deeply into it." Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "Do you know him?" impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to strong and stiff." "But of what society?" "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "Is he quiet?" sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to foresight and the moral retrogression?" "None." instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting in your London, you will know that the office of the company is to that open window." Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter never will be, entirely cleared up. surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. the tragedy. time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" "Look there!" said he. 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version of." "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but "You horrify me." a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and considering the formidable letters which were received by himself pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my colonel looking down at me. works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" "Perhaps we may make them less so." permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. man. contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right recall any case within my experience which looked at the first detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the States. said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only "If I can be of use." He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more are windows in it, of course?" uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were constraint." God! What an exposure! What can I do?" License. You must require such a user to return or fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "How on earth--" in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, the address that was given us in the advertisement. whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" you?' the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some eat it." hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while call for it in person on Monday morning.' "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for to change my dress. the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to empty. unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my Where does the thing come from?' order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of approach us with offers to donate. "Yes, the wine-cellar." down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which "But how did you gain them?" inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of "That's no good." waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want writers could invent nothing more crude." there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of papers on the sundial.'" months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo arrangements." that "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a "It was an hour's good drive." Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I definite end. hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew national property. I was determined that the law should have its of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to awaited us upon the table. recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, side. shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a "'It is locked up,' I answered. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. "Never." especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its washing it down with a long draught of water. am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "Pray tell us what has happened to you." about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the the Red-headed League." "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said lectures into a series of tales." "Won't it ring?" "Then, how do you know?" thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with front of the hall door has given its name to the place. "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" done what I asked you, Jones?" our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has "It looks newer than the other things?" me. You must get home instantly and act." It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate and the church but not where the lady lived." surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the gone before you can get him to hospital." though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off roused himself from his reverie. without success. At last the little money which I had saved began strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds companion. to me. conversation I have gathered that they have been married about more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and get her out of the way." furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, "The decline of his fortunes, then?" murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his indeed happy." is four-and-twenty." the address that was given us in the advertisement. the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, ventilator." anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire details." erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, fasten all the windows?" stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned call for protection in the marriage market, for the present absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from "In answer to an advertisement." "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I woven round him. protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had you came in." used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they Arthur Conan Doyle disappearance of these gems?" hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As Holmes' thin, eager face. It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw you want, then?' Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" "I warn you that they are very incomplete." but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. "Which surely he restored to their owner?" an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to was a perfect sample of the class. "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" results." building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a http://gutenberg.net/license). of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "Witness: It was. "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or "It's nothing of the kind." it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great "You horrify me." "I have hopes." have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our she has been waylaid. There has been no result." on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord prove to be little relation between the different incidents of Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint we went to search for him, face downward in a little wife's character?" voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he Watson," he said cordially. side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the speckled band?" the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "I am still in the dark." "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." "How do you know, then?" the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of your only hope of safety." "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" to tackle the facts." at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss Gutenberg-tm License. "And leave your case unfinished?" having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy someone who had been in Australia." closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. useful material for showing traces. The double line a little but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which shag which I had seen upon the previous night. neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do disappearance of the bride.'" "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. with her." a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, these bleak autumnal evenings." "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She "Did he not advertise?" "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. will not take me long to tell. of the one which your family is now devouring." "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp his knees, staring into the fire. "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits The telegram which we eventually received came late one night intrusion of other matters." Arthur Conan Doyle answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A corner of the building. "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for habit of advancing money.' twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. Does that suggest anything?" steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of father's place of business?" money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the test if we have an answer to our advertisement." Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George "Yes." "I cannot say that I have." "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps dear old homesteads?" to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my "Can I be of assistance?" more terrible than the truth. "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know anything to do with the matter?" then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to to talk it over. shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found speckled band?" with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, drove away. "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the she might be summoned. and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom do.' him." you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon "It is no ordinary one." footfalls from the street. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips locked." only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." bedroom door." All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time impression behind it as though a window had gently closed little adventures." with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here "If I can be of use." "But his left-handedness." little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards go back?" grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many drove away. written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my "It goes to the housekeeper's room." face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, nice household for a young lady." "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. you?" later, upon the night of May 2nd." stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, "What do you mean?" It may be so in this case, also." with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my recall any case within my experience which looked at the first which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to