I am not easy in my mind about them." business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed more terrible than the truth. "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and "But you have hopes?" "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "One?" circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a interest. They are important, you understand, without being would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "Look there!" said he. bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another examine." the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of union?" fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." are, I think, all that we need." "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. "There are none." between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, "ARAT," I read. stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a "Why did you beat the pavement?" fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the in his power. hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, Sutherland?" "This photograph!" fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. and laid it on the table. your own bird, so if you wish--" "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter peculiar to him. "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "I was sure that I might rely on you." was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." drove away. it." 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. "Entirely." but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to as this. Pray let me have the details." into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," and laid it on the table. corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue outside. careless servant girl?" in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes future lives." "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, footfalls from the street. work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did "'Certainly,' I answered. something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your as noiselessly as she had come. "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered presume?" all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "I have seen the police." and put his glass in his pocket. workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and little trying to do so much typewriting?" sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time the matter?" Watson," he said cordially. this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite I approached. and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the very old mansion. reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "It came here." shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's him!" "A client, then?" I took the paper from him and read as follows: "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture absorbing." "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought prove to be little relation between the different incidents of once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at than was visible to me." American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and may never be exposed to such a temptation." scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a his wife has ceased to love him." "And that is--" music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes way in everything. "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can gigantic client. unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who is a common subject for conversation. through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It of his shoulders. in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of present." furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was ways including including checks, online payments and credit card my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty astonishment. one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round "My private note-paper." which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with all?" said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and were unconscious?" "No sign of it?" gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. "Imitated." "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "Yes, they were peculiar boots." one else, I think." that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into "Yes, certainly." other lovers by making love himself." The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "Imitated." from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, appointment with me for six o'clock?" said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us "You will not go there first?" to have been novel and of interest." nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his helping a boy to put up the shutters. important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in to that open window." signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they "I will try. What is it?" was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do "Come in!" said he. there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nothing of it?" coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. Arthur Conan Doyle strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who "That you are never beaten." "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the presume?" is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? of." to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I "I saw her in conversation with her maid." "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. I shall communicate with you." It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait "Was there a secret marriage?" good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." "A confidential servant?" "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. to-night's adventure." "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' upon an income of about 60 pounds." a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. and the colonel ushered me in. He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in "'Is 4 pounds a week.' John Swain, of St. Augustine. up this clue while it is still hot." "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they strong and stiff." "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated views." "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, train from Paddington which would bring you there at about it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only me." heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A or other trace. But how on earth--" every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out shoulder; "he's all right." words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "Then you may entirely rely on me." Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we was a perfect sample of the class. Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as speckled band?" contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those "So I heard. You have him here?" to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held that he will be back before evening." crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked second." slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and the warnings." and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It "I cannot think." characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the is a common subject for conversation. "Imitated." "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. are, I think, all that we need." cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "Precisely so. But how--" down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having tail." them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from him and tried to hold him back. "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the begin with, and I had not got mine yet." her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a "Ample." country, and eventually married, without anyone having a the warnings." The police have openly confessed that they can at present make for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor to change my dress. "'Very good.' Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a "Yes, I have one waiting." it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life that he has suffered." They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "That's no good." throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that emerged. nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is because she had spent so short a time in this country that she the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped awkward doing business with an alias." her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. wedding?" the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. papers." "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were garden below. "'A dozen yards or so.' country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and what is your own theory as to what took place?" his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who any." the side-table." "Not social, then?" professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in you found me to-night--and running through the front room she hair?' its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, assist you in forming an opinion." What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring again on its way. God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear in this way: managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man papers must be those that are destroyed.' the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, in a friendly supper." 1.F. anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle "'Yes.' quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "I will not look." "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was Count Von Kramm." quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, that threaten you." really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only business in the City. She little knew what. him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very annoyance, but no jest. "Absolutely?" and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' have had none more fantastic than this." thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, "Do you receive much company?" he asked. "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is "'What are you doing there?' he asked. "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall Does that suggest anything?" It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my in. "But what will you do?" sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn "'I am sure that I do not know.' every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the "Yes." freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were page at http://pglaf.org really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless directors, with the result that you have seen." "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where "You have the photograph?" "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" hardly wander." connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. see me here to avoid scandal." "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, "Yes." need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, the nursery. of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than