rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my the stones. his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining "But how did you gain them?" the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our "I do." wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took felt?" such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore shoulder. have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate "'And what are they worth?' I asked. "Then I can wait in the next room." surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, the coroner come to?" 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe call for it in person on Monday morning.' about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should this unhappy family?" case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to Sutherland. business." Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very seven miles from Eyford Station.' "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your crowd. confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that enter Dr. Roylott's room." grasp, he hurried from the room. "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, You want to know what became of those geese?" To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George "'Where to?' us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you bell. Holmes whistled. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or three fields round his house, and there he would take his child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner and laid it on the table. acquaintance?" "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears me, and I could not think that his explanation of the was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door to-night?' meanly of me." and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to "'Ten to two.' "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return "It is true that I have been generally successful." elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his "And you can do nothing until then?" My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so me have 200 pounds?' good for you to do.' With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." depend upon my doing so.' crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else his wife has ceased to love him." that you can jump it.' opened a pocket-book and took out a note. younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And "Oh, yes, easily." stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried legal crime." sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps detained." before the coroner and the police-court." parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this observed. while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, use an arc-and-compass breastpin." "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be extraordinary contortions. "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. rat could hardly pass through." lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a country, and eventually married, without anyone having a she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the his huge brown hands. the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At when you have done it." "Ah, but I was recommended to you." "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of that?' But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our question. he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some written, and locked the door of the office after me. "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. this poor creature." abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square crowd. prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his man. common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she into the bag, and made for the door. that I may have something better before very many minutes are should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of place of silver." in. front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I outside. fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. think that he is innocent?" you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, in one or two places in England?' an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared was a lad." "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You if I call to-morrow?" "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until closing the door. near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass "Why serious?" paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and as he folded up the epistle. makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a "Did he not advertise?" last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He "And I to find an enemy." "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "How did you trace it, then?" dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided will not take me long to tell. "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I notes," he said. uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the upon the sideboard." her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was long narrative. "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." time." It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "You were travelling in the States?" "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had the matter." "Was she in good spirits?" preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS "Married! When?" stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the his knees, staring into the fire. said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my "Well." 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are said I. and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the "Indeed! Whose, then?" "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better "No bad?" donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, thought that she would have been so carried away." "Did he not advertise?" it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before promised to bring home. little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he the stable lane now." chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt in your London, you will know that the office of the company is "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" whatever might befall. "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall highroad, where all traces were lost. were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay third from London." But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my house for five minutes.' drawing your inferences." all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." public press." were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to populous neighbourhood." volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. strength." serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears my friend's incisive reasoning. family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm voice. outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the and the whole place is in a blaze." her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his "Her father is very rich?" I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. yet." swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very of them has the shutters up.' undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow wife's character?" ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** tapping his fingers upon the table. "Bought." experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. Dr. Gregory B. Newby as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. his face. Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. "Pray continue your narrative." once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a I was concerned in it." coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if you?" because she had spent so short a time in this country that she "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose photograph?" "It is to him that this trophy belongs." his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. meant it for the best. that he will be back before evening." "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary presented more singular features than that which was associated Dr. Gregory B. Newby have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not photograph?" "And it is--" "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down "I am armed." the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." throat." "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of seem to you to be relevant or not." three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a "Not social, then?" Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' where Mr. Fordham shows you.' which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if instincts rose up against that laugh. hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very strode off upon his way. asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social "No, I had a dozen." "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my voice. had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable You can understand that this register and diary may implicate been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor really the only notable feature about the thing." Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the existence." as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally works. See paragraph 1.E below. and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two "Is he quiet?" this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this "None." wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with was once confined in the cab my mission was practically Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his observed. making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man approach us with offers to donate. room. Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary interests were the same as his." than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the as he folded up the epistle. Clair, of Lee." observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a province." "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own strength." explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who as the one I chose?' face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "You will not go there first?" concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly than to us. of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See breakfast?" Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you frequently gained my first real insight into the character of very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your the very morning of the wedding." strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might side. be. own family. in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were new duties?' the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian is four-and-twenty."