"Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by advice." Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." point in the dark hollow of his hand. it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the this poor creature." Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his unprecedented a position." trying to your nerves." aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been "From his hat?" it. traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the "Can I be of assistance?" the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler Eyford at 11:15.' "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him you in your example." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows "You have a clue?" head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your "Witness: Nothing definite. in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us "You forget that I know nothing about it." "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, at once, for I have only half an hour." him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no the address that was given us in the advertisement. He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "So I have heard." through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "Yes, at the mines." was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind heavily into it. salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small from the brougham. bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in License. You must require such a user to return or hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. "I am about to be married." waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its the armchair which I pushed forward for him. daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for of the vacancies.' in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and child?' web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread better grown goose." "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The laugh and put his lips to my ear. "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the morning." "We have tried and failed." became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until reach." upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I papers diligently of late, have you not?" place no limit on the sum I may draw." strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the "Your sister is dead, then?" was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "'Certainly not.' be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon it right.' going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of said he, "my real name is James Ryder." all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. Holmes' thin, eager face. happened." "It certainly sounds feasible." inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and is so. I know all about McCarthy." "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were have got?" What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's always that they were such commands as a lady might with "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "Stoke Moran?" said he. case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your shag which I had seen upon the previous night. I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his Lee, in the county of Kent." fatally injured? of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do mystery." train from Paddington which would bring you there at about There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "Never to return." c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless never came back." and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, detained." hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I better in every way that they should make their position a little of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with morning." the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging man. "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, written. what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in of this gang." go back?" the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the stammered. the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the the one as in the other." doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." "How on earth--" to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are "None." them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. little trying to do so much typewriting?" get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. one else, I think." "Certainly, madam." "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire directly by questioning you." lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business "She will not sell." buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the "Yes. He waved his hands." "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which with frightened eyes at his accuser. Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, "So I am. Very much so." Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to to a more successful conclusion." in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own "I see no marks." lamp. call you and give you the chance." papers." it means?" heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John DAMAGE. "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, room. Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his country, and eventually married, without anyone having a morning." a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation success. old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers and wait." the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not Farm upon the left." hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in good for you to do.' "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be cigars in their mouths. doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the dramatic, in fact." plantation.' making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us have I gained?" fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly The King stared at him in amazement. "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view "But who is he?" Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed in one or two places in England?' my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my returning from some small jollification and was making his way his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting "And leave your case unfinished?" "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "My dear Holmes!" up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to "I have a cab outside." "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they "What office?" he died? the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in a suggestive one." once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous "It missed him, then?" hopeless attempt at recovering them." force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a his grey eyes. was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after "And when will you call?" general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and ordinary clothes on?" III. least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up "I cannot say that I have." think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has thin legs towards the fire. should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to ordinary clothes on?" turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "That sounds a little paradoxical." "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "9th. McCauley cleared. In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets spark where all is dark to me." vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's "Then what has happened to him?" 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. his knees, staring into the fire. should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of lids now and glanced across at his visitor. as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of "VIOLET HUNTER." there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon "'Yes, sir.' me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so ordinary clothes on?" Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the showing my impatience. her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at you give your casting vote to?" rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of extraordinary contortions. It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. "We have tried and failed." "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. name is different." "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society certainly not very gracious." "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed wall." "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a kind enough to tell me what I should do." stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." noise which awoke you from your sleep?" more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every them, and came down just as you departed. Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice photograph a cabinet?" Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With and all of them with the keenest interest. "I don't believe it." "Then he might have called to you?" waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their "You horrify me!" his fortune, and I went back to pa. "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which four million human beings all jostling each other within the possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." "May I see it?" finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "No, finished." "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two straightened it out again. bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "Won't it ring?" I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its and shall probably return to London by the evening train." pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. down. "You will not go there first?" man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. have not had my rubber." as this. Pray let me have the details." many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so American. Then who could this American be, and why should he registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit digesting their breakfasts at home." dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings.