why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to touch that coronet?' be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other "Yes." a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face only touch the interest." are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout weary and pale-looking. like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of You can understand that this register and diary may implicate "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the meanly of me." "But she could not love him." occurred." power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself for the market.' "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. "I have hopes." been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly recall any case within my experience which looked at the first himself to tell his story. the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "To an English lawyer named Norton." all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during of Fenchurch Street." and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, nights." clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be go from here to the Strand." the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have putting in the horse. but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the Mrs. Toller serenely. perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to quick march!" "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't at a side door. dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the "Whose house is it?" me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had garden below. "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite "Well, it is a possible supposition." determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for was keenly on my guard against him. kindly on the shoulder. this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the business in the City. She little knew what. fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no the general public were present, then?" Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the Sholtos." there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she "It is a murder, then?" Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. detective. his eyes and forehead. Eyford." were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the upon the sideboard." that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered "But how?" "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she your equipment. believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the woman." 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late are, I think, all that we need." be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as any little problem which you may submit to me." "And when will you call?" and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a "Yes." "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' "Nothing?" this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a their singular warning or token before them when starting upon and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your throat." a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and The police have openly confessed that they can at present make sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn of your young ladies.' me." tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "One of his hands." for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no humiliation." he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I "I cannot say that I have." The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open could not have written that. It is the German who is so "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in "It is his hat." "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. security.' is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall existence." down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." "And how?" one's self under obligations.' the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A of Fenchurch Street." us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. upon the white wrist. overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker "'There is a drive, then?' spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." south, for the country is more deserted there." "I cannot imagine." "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure "What, then?" power." wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and an introduction to him?" to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? have got?" were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and morning." both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would will find little credit to be gained out of this case." can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. business came to an end." Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe union?" with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both The telegram which we eventually received came late one night smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your showing my impatience. "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. "Yes, he did." in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, tied." him and tried to hold him back. "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined my former friend and companion. man. I know him from the photograph." surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." to arrive at through this?" to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New "None." work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the "None." and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." "Not yet." I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was who was a member of your goose club." case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." lumber-room." all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further prison!" this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very was once confined in the cab my mission was practically 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard "He is dead," cried several voices. opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an furiously. been lifted and conveyed somewhere." passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with "And who is her maid?" seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just nonsense.' system of imprisonment?" arms and began to sob in a high treble key. "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "Yes, there are nearly always some there." have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to "What!" he roared. "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." "And now?" He raised his hand. "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I mysterious end." "But you were on a friendly footing?" "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so certainly do as you advise." though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to my little problems." daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He Chief Executive and Director least a most suspicious remark." money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the me have 200 pounds?' the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing burst out into a roar of laughter. a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in "Was the window open?" which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of absorbing." salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate "Pray let us have it, for all that." "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you which should have the effect of calling the attention of the her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very of fine shops and stately business premises that they really detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must "I am sure." sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which conclusions. The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking way in everything. "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings "Bought." that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle invisible to me," I remarked. weary and pale-looking. collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "None." "That is also quite modern," said the lady. her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no "How long did she speak to this Alice?" banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with think you a quite exceptional woman." condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two union?" but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" felt the room to be a little close.' Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home infinite languor in his face. prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "'Yes, it was gone.' "Pray let us have it, for all that." coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. "Certainly." address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is which we had just quitted. preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "I don't believe it." Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he "What are they?" say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. said Mr. Holder. your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "How can you tell that?" name is different." deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing your most interesting statement." may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child problems help me to do so." garden below. although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he fled together." It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to "What can you not understand?" sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get I nodded to show that I had heard. face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, "So I heard. You have him here?" afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such "The rest you will leave in our hands." "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman woven round him. "I am following you closely," I answered. "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his "But the mystery?" him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak tell me that you intended to go into harness." "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning figure." "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which daring than any effort of the imagination." down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" "You have a clue?" attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black