"You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than Stoke Moran." Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." was a perfect sample of the class. are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others at my own good fortune. of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and answered with a sidelong glance. to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, "Seven!" I answered. an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front "Murdered?" Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in "That's no good." is acting for the best. "Then he might have called to you?" face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of hardly wander." even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a danger is over." my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were him!" upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end "Witness: Nothing definite. at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that with you?" We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" "No legal papers or certificates?" I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' "That's no good." bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" quickly through a disagreeable task. all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she shag which I had seen upon the previous night. she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been fire. You quite follow me?" Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this at home. "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and "What then?" was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "I say it is." dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to if she died from some sudden fright." ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the recall any case within my experience which looked at the first speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and unclasping of his long thin hands. believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the to change my dress. pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. not personally threatened." Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification "It may not come to that," said Holmes. never to learn it at all." "That is possible." the loss of it. my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The success. think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There matter over." her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered morning." "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, charged with?" "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing "It may not come to that," said Holmes. nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." disturbance in my wife." "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul depend upon my doing so.' once more. Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for even so self-evident a thing as that." "It may not come to that," said Holmes. "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge rat could hardly pass through." high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a "But what is it you wish?" "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm "What then?" his eyes and forehead. he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, system of imprisonment?" fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." "To the police?" on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual "No. His orders were to stay in the house." "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am "I never have." one which it was hard to resist. "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had meant it for the best. thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, "A client, then?" what is your own theory as to what took place?" took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a "I have my revolver," said I. lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country "And I." without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in invisible to me," I remarked. with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor shall use the carriage to-night." "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at never to learn it at all." confronted him. his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock because she had spent so short a time in this country that she undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of relation between them, and what the object of his repeated box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here asked with his eyes open. which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was "Did you become engaged then?" "I was afraid that you were engaged." star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had she to prove their authenticity?" There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in as noiselessly as she had come. "Here?" "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have and capable of preserving a secret.' "'Most admirably.' Leadenhall Street--and--" wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" the room while you explain this matter?" "Get out!" said he. The summons was a brief and urgent one. admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her that he has suffered." Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could room?" room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "In heaven's name, what for?" safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true to tell." scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an been anything against him. He had for years been known as a purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each very morning of my second wedding." interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "But his left-handedness." "It goes to the housekeeper's room." pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if confronted him. description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small His smile broadened. "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That Leadenhall Street--and--" without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange compunction about shooting them down." wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that desk. answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have man. I know him from the photograph." "Have you her photograph?" though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated make me his representative both with the servants and with the the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "It is no ordinary one." pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet sofa. This way, please!" nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the guilty one." "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; "'What would be the hours?' I asked. way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered I shall continue with my miserable story. last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be his forehead." seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "Why did you pick him?" of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back "But you have hopes?" "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and "No." with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "Well, but China?" room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. and the church but not where the lady lived." paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "And you don't know his address?" these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The "Oh, yes, easily." yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a bachelor.' be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "It missed him, then?" Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that "Yesterday." "Certainly." front of the hall door has given its name to the place. "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at "Which surely he restored to their owner?" "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons "It surprised me." "It is half-past ten now." opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some "Then I am your man." peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either be. her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting straighten it?" crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, "'What do you call purely nominal?' while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of detective. Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with emerged. this unhappy family?" expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a "Bought." was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not "And why?" the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the him!" away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it "And from a noble client?" "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and "From his hat?" "'As governess?' about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in "It was." if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in there has been an enclosure here!" interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from already been minutely examined." Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "'You doubt its value?' he asked. "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. sufficient punishment." to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed union?" after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, Leave Paddington by the 11:15." street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler The King stared at him in amazement. true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." once more. fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," of note-paper. It read in this fashion: sooner or later she must fall a victim. Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "But she could not love him." "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought less than 26s. 4d. "Yes." "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the our word." engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I ceremony." fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son several quiet little villages up there." through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have straighten it?" "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I