glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are "You did not overhear what they said?" come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "Seven!" I answered. had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after "In which, sir?" wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and head. So long, then!" round and wave him away like that.' seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both friends, not even his own brother. unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," "Yes." window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure "Then I can wait in the next room." my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of said I. sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as I nodded again. hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the call you and give you the chance." was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough present strange and interesting features that it is no easy hereditary King of Bohemia." lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be returning from some small jollification and was making his way at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found not personally threatened." though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray round and wave him away like that.' lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the colonel looking down at me. alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open are, I think, all that we need." One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" "You have but to name it." bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side time." pound a week." "'What do you call purely nominal?' "I don't say that. Perhaps." and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the father's place of business?" "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or Countess of Morcar's?" "Breckinridge is his name." material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with we went to search for him, face downward in a little flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "Very truly yours, "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a use an arc-and-compass breastpin." lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." kindly on the shoulder. "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe crime. his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" at my remark. impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. "One of the highest in England." us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in again before evening." wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to "What will you say?" John Swain, of St. Augustine. "'Why that?' I asks. to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little asked with his eyes open. same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can "Yes, I have one waiting." "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," me. You must get home instantly and act." so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you him and tried to hold him back. human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us "'Most admirably.' true." "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So nothing of it?" the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from you in yours." We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." considering the formidable letters which were received by himself sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. in my life." mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which three of the beryls in it, was missing. "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "But who is he?" daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had so.' hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this his fortune, and I went back to pa. perplexity from it to my illustrious client. is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" his grey eyes. and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, eavesdroppers?' tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common opened a pocket-book and took out a note. corner of the building. for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be may never be exposed to such a temptation." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose what is your own theory as to what took place?" One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other straightened it out again. unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens examination of the premises, but without finding anything which Holmes." the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and as noiselessly as she had come. not come at once?" "'Is 4 pounds a week.' He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his was already answered. "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a despair." the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into must be when I saw the door open.' assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence views." Pope's Court, Fleet Street." sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." hopeless attempt at recovering them." the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to feature." "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of "When did it break out?" shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is the matter?" are windows in it, of course?" have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for highroad, where all traces were lost. full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote me have 200 pounds?' "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "Nothing." "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for "'Which dealer's?' thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from "Yes." be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 to-night's adventure." after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. father's young wife. the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I relief. the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a she has been waylaid. There has been no result." "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger "But I am all in the dark." with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place what is your own theory as to what took place?" "Yes, but only for you and me." the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. you in yours." The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into she slowly sank and died without having recovered her over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from were wasted." observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For considering the formidable letters which were received by himself Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in "Whose house is it?" it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to I shall communicate with you." like gravel from a pit.' maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly stalked out of the room. "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." them, and came down just as you departed. someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, companion imperturbably. as noiselessly as she had come. "Your presence might be invaluable." which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "Then you may be so with me." evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a "'Yes, sir.' "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can "I have a cab outside." upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I arrested. You then--" "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I as the one I chose?' the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's works. See paragraph 1.E below. of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning signal between you and your father? the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged "The King of Scandinavia." however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which upon the shelf for the interim." destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have good for you to do.' "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was You can understand that this register and diary may implicate It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced a suggestive one." such person." there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become foot. considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am the morning and make my own way in the world.' o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly place no limit on the sum I may draw." "My dear Holmes!" "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our dramatic, in fact." it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "But how?" father's young wife. have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and morning." conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the Holmes' thin, eager face. sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." congenial hunt. "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his made him keep the appointment." family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it without success. At last the little money which I had saved began gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in "Whose house is it?" unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, "But I am all in the dark." wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm populous neighbourhood." was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you details." "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention shag which I had seen upon the previous night. time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" Gutenberg-tm License.