caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was "He is dead," cried several voices. himself to hunt down. here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to him nearly every evening." of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than "Yes." "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him guilty parties." half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, "By all means." front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I his forehead." How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been him to go away.' fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what towards the blaze. this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "Why? What do you mean?" "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in cigars in their mouths. brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a not within a twentieth part of the market price." repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would to his chemical studies. "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when "You horrify me!" if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, emerged. so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this later, upon the night of May 2nd." "Why did you beat the pavement?" "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where drove away. face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would arrangements." the coroner come to?" he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "No. What a strange idea!" "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his train.' whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project at once, for I have only half an hour." The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a than was visible to me." "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet "No good news?" "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to nonsense.' It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed "Quite so. She has her freedom." not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for it." it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I and glanced through. without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light always that they were such commands as a lady might with "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is "You have but to name it." money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of it with his own hands." If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case to tackle the facts." wife's character?" taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, "No. His orders were to stay in the house." living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "She showed me, as I told you she would." disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of showing my impatience. "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers "It is to him that this trophy belongs." "And I say east," said my patient. many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns in a friendly supper." "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "You have the photograph?" her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have plantation.' this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" once more for Briony Lodge. constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with careless servant girl?" "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, him to go away.' "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or "In what way?" asked Holmes. "Here?" need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of just called myself is not exactly my own." engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I relief. lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door "Very much so." "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you hour." tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance writer." Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this "Very well, sir. And this stone?" when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one you for a few hours?" an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a horse could go." railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his the Friday. Was it to be in church?" hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle "What do you mean?" him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell ourselves in the office." the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg little trying to do so much typewriting?" strode off upon his way. her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised "You know me, then?" of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will during the last few years, and there are many noble families to Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were in. "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put empty. myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be "Yes, I have one waiting." lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." "Indeed! Whose, then?" "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though awaited us upon the table. "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." both be extremely obliged.' murdered man." his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing charged with?" How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "No." prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in fatally injured? "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, "Do you go out much in society?" the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in it were putty." reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling "I was certainly surprised to find you there." a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that narrative." pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "Yes." "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my in his hands." Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is "You did not overhear what they said?" "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might disturbance in my wife." pierced for earrings?" from you?" first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some she to prove their authenticity?" there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what lamp. office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and one's self under obligations.' days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, "That is it on the dressing-table." One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us "You have a clue?" sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close was once confined in the cab my mission was practically was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my things are very often connected not with the larger but with the accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with we went to search for him, face downward in a little "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we "They are typewritten," I remarked. overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress cost them two and thirty pounds." branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with "Who by?" conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his constraint." others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to things are very often connected not with the larger but with the him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from third from London." "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you the little opening for the ventilator is." "And who is her maid?" through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "He said too much." and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of already been minutely examined." suddenly upon us." red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window other means.' "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. directors, with the result that you have seen." fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "Ample." fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet it? Did I buy the geese off you?" "Well, but China?" in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth overpowering excitement and concern. the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, "I am about to be married." himself. into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson once more to my work. though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the away in different directions, and I went off to make my own "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the question," said Holmes, smiling. signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have it." saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a the warnings." the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that "That was it, sir." Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the "Here?" and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in the address that was given us in the advertisement. smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at fishes. that threaten you." side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "And your mother is alive?" and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the had formerly been in part my own. to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me "He slept on the premises." her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part "What have you to say now?" fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "Witness: It was. or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which ways of our fellow-men." "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he "Who was the criminal, then?" shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. know that the truth is known." must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is "That is easily got." certainly not very gracious." in him." peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to his face which made him a very different person to the round, hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which sentimental considerations in the background which would induce "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached The telegram which we eventually received came late one night six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an there in twenty minutes." "Certainly." the general public were present, then?" "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." it? Did I buy the geese off you?" I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' rooms." afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was pierced for earrings?" aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet the matter?" "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the directly by questioning you." re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass the running down." Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I me." "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than Farm upon the left."