"Can I be of assistance?" Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "And now?" He raised his hand. gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, whatever might befall. to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he me have 200 pounds?' southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, handed it to him. return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most front of the hall door has given its name to the place. muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out hand, madam?" should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to "And how?" were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in The telegram which we eventually received came late one night his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "A thing like a cleaver," said he. man. I know him from the photograph." "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had to where he stood hid behind the curtain. all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself it right.' "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out "Well, but China?" a little more before I quite committed myself. be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "Ten will be early enough." "'Certainly not. But why?' the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm "I will get her to show me." "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in were new raised from a basin. You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, "You know me, then?" right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack Cross for the Continent." disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either "'What then?' I asked. laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will right! Sit down and let us talk it over." every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down "In answer to an advertisement." was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have article?" zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen newspaper selections." master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after You want to know what became of those geese?" most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet that you can jump it.' evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you "How many? I don't know." that the gas is not laid on in his house?" much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose presented more singular features than that which was associated superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "'Never.' was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold colour had been driven from his face. nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "Why did you beat the pavement?" "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking few hundred pounds.' to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up gone. in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me the armchair which I pushed forward for him. for securing the situation." located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with the best of training." conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. Pope's Court. "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the "But I am all in the dark." leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was guilty one." had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "Not in a good cause." mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you your own bird, so if you wish--" increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue one of them." "Oh, fresh and glossy." and all of them with the keenest interest. mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally society." "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "To the police?" should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him on in his house." "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found "It may not come to that," said Holmes. key turn in the lock." days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say and wait." "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I "It is his hat." dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. have I gained?" room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it not use it unless it is absolutely needed." 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "Yes." "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have fled together." although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made affair. be there in time for your coming." crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk pierced for earrings?" safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have sparkled upon his finger. happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "Very murderous indeed." Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. "How about poison?" smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his License. You must require such a user to return or saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook depend upon your compliance." WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson there is a decided draught." will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin possible that we could bring him back to her? higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and public press." "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I business came to an end." at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the have I gained?" day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a think you a quite exceptional woman." "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, that you saw all that I did." mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a John Swain, of St. Augustine. "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." "My last client of the sort was a king." eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. this unhappy family?" I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped you?' cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn miles off. because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry electronic works "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the "Then he might have called to you?" work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the Where does the thing come from?' "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have "Absolutely?" Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." highly," said Holmes. was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly article?" bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, "But she could not love him." passage and a tap at the door. understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, "It looks newer than the other things?" Holmes' room. Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who "Has he come with you to-night?" the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you made him keep the appointment." of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to his cane at the bell-pull. "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save said he. deduce something from that?" in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what "Yes, the wine-cellar." "It was a confession," I ejaculated. and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." exactly what you advise." of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words "Dirty?" "How do you know, then?" "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the "And Miss Sutherland?" Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his locked. dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel occupations.' upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of it." "You think so, too?" his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into went to the Alpha were town bred." "When did she vanish, then?" the room while you explain this matter?" distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "And how have you succeeded?" "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which "And for present expenses?" "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I at once, for I have only half an hour." a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever such attractions and accomplishments?' family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and 'please.'" insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow would apply.' trifles." Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking could go. "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I upon an income of about 60 pounds." reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "She told me to ask you." "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are province." sound at heart." papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and "What then?" any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be me. unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When "I came to find a friend." grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "But you have hopes?" through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect during the last few years, and there are many noble families to other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest "10th. John Swain cleared. What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to to arrive at through this?" purpose of examination. "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, gentleman's clothes. whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a instincts rose up against that laugh. again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. hair?' tell them apart.' Countess of Morcar's?" every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed For additional contact information: scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can tell me that you intended to go into harness." to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave "How many? I don't know." There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I "My private note-paper." carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "No more words. Get out!" "I have a cab outside." "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who the room while you explain this matter?" the inquest, and which are worth considering." member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that in him." part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven to that open window." "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able a monotonous occupation." shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of "That is also quite modern," said the lady. yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents bedroom door." "That also I could fathom." preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have long narrative. quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" over part of the map. "What do you read?" the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** writers could invent nothing more crude." villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp